American Freedom
Anouar Majid & Robert J. Allison in Conversation
A special series commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.
Episodes
1. Of Compacts and Covenants
2. What is an American?
3. Redefining Freedom
4. Declaration of Independence
5. Republican Polytheism?
6. The Constitution and its Amendments
7. What is a Creedal Nation?
8. Celebrating Freedom
Hosts
Anouar Majid and Bob (Robert) J. Allison have been friends since Anouar read Bob’s book The Crescent Obscured in the late 1990s. The book was gifted to Anouar by the late historian Jacques Downs, who knew that Anouar would find it interesting. Jacques’ prescient guess led Anouar into a whole new area of research in American literature and history, parts of which were eventually published in Freedom and Orthodoxy. Anouar and Bob have been in touch ever since, meeting in Portland, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; and Tangier, Morocco.
Anouar Majid
Anouar Majid is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of New England. He is the author of Islam and America: Building a Future Without Prejudice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012; paperback edition, with new preface, 2015); We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities (University of Minnesota Press, 2009); A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent is Vital to Islam and America (University of Minnesota Press, 2007), Freedom and Orthodoxy: Islam and Difference in the Post-Andalusian Age (Stanford University Press, 2004), Unveiling Traditions: Postcolonial Islam in a Polycentric World (Duke University Press, 2000), and the novel Si Yussef (Quartet, 1992; Interlink, 2005). Majid published major scholarly articles in the journals Cultural Critique and Signs, and contributed opinion pieces to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Washington Post, New York Times (with a colleague), and other national and international publications. His life and work were featured on Al Jazeera television and the Bill Moyers Journal.
Robert J. Allison
Robert J. Allison is a professor of history at Suffolk University. His books include The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, a biography of American naval hero Stephen Decatur, and short books on the history of Boston, the American Revolution, and an edition of The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Two of his classes, “Before 1776: Life in Colonial America,” and “The Age of Benjamin Franklin” are available from The Great Courses. As chair of Revolution 250, a consortium of organizations planning Revolutionary commemorations in Massachusetts, he hosts its weekly podcast (https://www.buzzsprout.com/1336051) featuring conversations on the Revolution with historians and interpreters. He received his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization at Harvard, the first American studies doctoral program. He is President of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts (https://www.colonialsociety.org/), a scholarly organization focused on early American history, and a life-trustee of the USS CONSTITUTION Museum.