American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945 - Softcover

Little, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807858986 ISBN 13: 9780807858981

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2008

Synopsis

Douglas Little explores the stormy American relationship with the Middle East from World War II through the war in Iraq, focusing particularly on the complex and often inconsistent attitudes and interests that helped put the United States on a collision course with radical Islam early in the new millennium. After documenting the persistence of "orientalist" stereotypes in American popular culture, Little examines oil, Israel, and other aspects of U.S. policy. He concludes that a peculiar blend of arrogance and ignorance has led American officials to overestimate their ability to shape events in the Middle East from 1945 through the present day, and that it has been a driving force behind the Iraq war. For this updated third edition, Little covers events through 2007, including a new chapter on the Bush Doctrine, demonstrating that in many important ways, George W. Bush's Middle Eastern policies mark a sharp break with the past.

About this title

Book Description:

"Little provides literary flair, both in his references to fiction and in his own writing style. . . . A solid collection of essays dealing with multiple facets of U.S. relations with the Middle East and offers a bold and simple thesis about American attitudes toward the region."-- Journal of Cold War Studies

About the Author:

Douglas Little is professor of history at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is author of Malevolent Neutrality: The United States, Great Britain, and the Origins of the Spanish Civil War.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0807858986
• ISBN 13: 9780807858981
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 464