Eamonn Gearon

Eamonn Gearon is a public historian, speaker, author, and educator, with decades of experience living in, writing on, and speaking about this vibrant, fraught and often misunderstood region. His influence on the public debate is widely acknowledged, with CNN’s Peter Bergen describing him simply as “brilliant”. In addition to many book-length works, he has written hundreds of articles and book reviews on history, and current affairs, politics, Islamism, art and architecture, language and culture, as well as the region’s armed forces, terrorism, and peace and reconciliation. The Sahara: A Cultural History, which book the BBC described as, “vital background reading for anyone who wants to understand the deep roots of the Arab Spring.” After living with the Bedu, he became a camel expert and solo desert explorer, and subsequently held teaching positions in universities on three continents, including Oxford, Johns Hopkins-SAIS, and the American University in Cairo.