Omar S. Dahi is Professor of Economics at Hampshire College and Founding Director of Security in Context, a research network on peace, conflict, and global affairs. He was born and raised in Syria and currently lives with his wife and two children in Amherst. Dahi has served as a lead expert on the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of West Asia's National Agenda for the Future of Syria program. He serves as an associate editor of the Review of Social Economy as well as the e-zine Jadaliyya and has served on the editorial committee of the Middle East Report. He is a founding member of the Beirut School of Critical Security Studies within the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS). His last book was South-South Trade and Finance in the 21st Century: Rise of the South or a Second Great Divergence (co-authored with Firat Demir).
This mostly forgotten war led to Mexico losing over half its territory and the United States expanding to the Pacific. The lecture examines the political and economic background of the conflict, what led to it, and the roles of such factors as Texas annexation in 1845, slavery, racism, the Democratic and Whig parties, and Manifest... Read more