EP 24: The Life of Gaddafi

Why was Muammar Gaddafi so hated by the west?

In this episode we dive into the life of Libya’s most polarising leader, from his childhood to his death, looking at the material conditions that shaped the life of the man who would decide Libya’s future.

Join Triploi as we follow the young idealistic officer who would lead the 1969 coup that promised to free his people, end foreign occupation, and turn the new found oil wealth into schools, housing, health care, and national development.

From the Green Book and the experiment of the Jamahiriya system, to his dream of pan-Africanism that would see decades of U.S. confrontation, sanctions, and bombardment.

And ultimately to uprising, civil war, and the NATO destruction of the Libyan state — that left the world arguing over what Gaddafi truly represented: liberation, authoritarianism, or the price of defying empire.

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References and reading list:

• Alison Pargeter, Libya: The Rise and Fall of Qaddafi (2012)
• Lisa Anderson, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830–1980 (1986)
• Ethan Chorin, Translating Libya: The Modern Libyan Experience (2007)
• Vijay Prashad, Arab Spring, Libyan Winter (2012)
• Muammar Gaddafi, The Green Book (1975)