Join journalists Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami, authors of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War in discussing the Syrian Civil War with New School professor Peter Hoffman.  

Robin Yassin-Kassab writes for  The Guardian,  Al Jazeera  English,  Foreign Policy,  The National ,  The New Arab,  the Daily Beast,  Newsweek Middle East, and  Guernica, among other publications. He is the  author of the novel  The Road from Damascus and a contributor to the anthology Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline.  He is a co-editor of the blog PULSE and a former co-editor of the journal Critical Muslim.

Leila Al-Shami is  a blogger and activist who has worked with the human rights movement and civil society organizations in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. She  is a founding member of Tahrir-ICN, a network that connects anti-authoritarian struggles across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. In this essay she explains why she and Robin wrote Burning Country.

Praise for the Book:

"Burning Country could have been titled A People's History of the Syrian Revolution and War: it provides a view from below that constitutes the perfect antidote to geopolitical reductionism. This book is unique in its combination of first-hand material derived from fieldwork, factual and analytical rigour, and unshakable faith in the Syrian people's struggle for justice and dignity."  —Thomas Pierret, University of Edinburgh 

For decades Syrians have been forbidden from telling their own stories and the story of their country, but here Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila al-Shami tell the Syrian story. Their words represent the devastated country which has denied them and their compatriots political representation. Burning Country is an indispensable book for those who wish to know the truth about Syria." —Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Syrian writer and former political prisoner

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