Synopses & Reviews
In this riveting account of U.S.-Arab relations, award-winning author Ussama Makdisi explores why Arabs once had a favorable view of America and why they no longer do. Firmly rejecting the spurious notion of a civilizational clash between Islam and the West, Makdisi instead demonstrates how an initial zealous American missionary crusade was transformed across the nineteenth-century into a leading American educational presence in the Arab world, and how the advent of the idea of Wilsonian self-determination, amidst wide-scale Arab emigration to the United States, further bolstered a positive, foundational Arab idea of America. However, a series of subsequent political turning pointsandmdash;beginning with the British and French colonial partition of the Arab world in 1920 and culminating in the U.S.-backed creation of Israel in 1948 at the expense of the Palestiniansandmdash;systematically alienated Arabs from America.
Drawing on both American and Arab sources, Makdisi brings to the fore for the first time a wide range of hitherto marginalized Arab perspectives on their multifaceted cultural and political encounters with America. Unearthing this neglected history puts current politics and Arab attitudes toward the United States in a crucial historical perspective. By tracing how American missionaries laid the basis for an initial Arab discovery of America, and then how later U.S. policy decisions fueled anti-Americanism, Makdisi tells a powerful historical tale brimming with contemporary relevance.
Review
Kirkus, a STARRED review andrdquo;A sage, evenhanded look at the souring of a once-promising relationshipandhellip; While numerous recent books delve more deeply into the Arab-Israel crisis of the modern era, Makdisi maneuvers through this minefield with a steady handandhellip; A work of impressive clarity and scholarship.andrdquo;and#160;Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy, July 29, 2010andldquo;Makdisi is a distinguished historian at Rice University, who's written a fascinating and spirited account of the tragic deterioration in U.S. relations with most of the Arab and Islamic worldandhellip;If you're still curious about andquot;why they hate us?andquot; this book is a good place to start.andrdquo;and#160;Christian Science Monitor, July 19, 2010andldquo;While Makdisiandrsquo;s narrative is lopsided andndash; focusing on how ties to Israel undermined US-Arab relations without mentioning how Arab nations themselves have undermined relations andndash; his well-written book offers fresh insight into the American evangelical presence in the Middle East.andrdquo;and#160;The Palestine Note, June 30, 2010andldquo;[Makdisi] succeeds in constructing a history that is pointed and deliberate but still represents the larger realities of Arab-American relations over the past two centuries. The book is a welcome and helpful resource for any reader wishing to understand how Arab-American relations have fallen to the nadir they are at now.andrdquo;and#160;Jerusalem Fund, August 31, 2010andldquo;Ussama Makdisi's book tells an important story about a relationship which, in its early years, had tremendous potential based on commonalities and tolerance, but it ultimately soured over time as the spirit of cooperation embodied in the academic institutions established by missions in the Arab world, was replaced with a spirit of domination and dictation from an aspiring superpower to a peoples in the midst of anti-colonialist resistance.andrdquo;and#160;Salon, December 8, 2010
andldquo;It is a sad tale, and Makdisi writes it with verve and elegance.andrdquo;
CHOICE, April 2011andldquo;This comprehensive, informative, well-researched, and well-written book has an excellent bibliographical essay.andrdquo;
Synopsis
America has seen the Arab World variously as a place to be saved, educated, traded with and then as a regional political challenge to be managed sometimes all simultaneously. To the Arabs, America appeared first as huddles of missionaries, as educational institutions, then as oil-needy industrialists and in a final dizzying betrayal as the prime mover behind the legitimization of the State of Israel. From afar, each has looked exotic and enticing to the other; up close the experience has been fraught with tension and resentment.
In this provocative new book, Lebanese American scholar Ussama Makdisi explores the relationship that might have been between Americans and Arabsbased on many shared educational and cultural valuesand how close that relationship was to being realized. Makdisi tells of the years when America was an ideal that Arabs could aspire to. And he chronicles in close detail the key moment when the relationship went awry, offering sobering policy recommendations on how America can redeem itself in Arab eyes.
Synopsis
An award-winning historian presents a controversial and dramatic portrait of America's interaction with the Arab worldand#151;and the defining choice that squandered years of carefully built good relations
About the Author
Ussama Makdisi is Arab American Educational Foundation Professor of History at Rice University. In April 2009 the Carnegie Corporation named Makdisi a 2009 Carnegie Scholar for his contributions to enriching the countryand#8217;s discourse on Islam. His previous book, Artillery of Heaven, won the 2009 John Hope Franklin Prize.