Speech
The Moor's Last Sigh: How Memories of 1492 Affect Bush's Crusade for Democracy in the Middle East
Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, September 26, 2006
Edwin Dorn, Professor, LBJ School of Public Affairs
I am grateful to Professor Toyin Falola for inviting me to speak this evening. Toyin is taking quite a risk, because he has agreed to let me talk about history, a subject that is far from my usual realm. I am a policy wonk, and we policy wonks tend to be a-historical. Our time horizon stretches from the present to the near future. For this lecture, however, I am going to venture far back in time, more than half a millennium.
I do so because events that transpired 500 years ago may provide a perspective on the challenges that our country is confronting today in the Middle East. The lesson of this excursion is that those who wish to change the course of history ought to be familiar with history.
What happened 500 years ago was a big deal, a clash of civilizations whose resolution had profound ramifications for Europe, for the Middle East and for the Americas. The time was 1492. The place was Granada, Spain. The apocalyptic moment occurred when the Caliph Boabdil surrendered the Alhambra to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, ending 700 years of Muslim dominance in Southern Spain.
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Copyright 2006 The Lyndon B. Johnson
School of Public Affairs
