Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East since1945

Melani McAlister

Published by University of California Press 2005

Epic Encounters

Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East since1945

Melani McAlister

Volume 6 in the series American Crossroads

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520932012

Overview
Contents

About this book

Epic Encounters examines how popular culture has shaped the ways Americans define their "interests" in the Middle East. In this innovative book—now brought up-to-date to include 9/11 and the Iraq war—Melani McAlister argues that U.S. foreign policy, while grounded in material and military realities, is also developed in a cultural context. American understandings of the region are framed by narratives that draw on religious belief, news media accounts, and popular culture. This remarkable and pathbreaking book skillfully weaves lively and accessible readings of film, media, and music with a rigorous analysis of U.S. foreign policy, race politics, and religious history.

The new chapter, titled "9/11 and After: Snapshots on the Road to Empire," considers and brilliantly analyzes five images that have become iconic: (1) New York City firemen raising the American flag out of the rubble of the World Trade Center, (2) the televised image of Osama bin-Laden, (3) Afghani women in burqas, (4) the statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled in Baghdad, and (5) the hooded and wired prisoner in Abu Ghraib. McAlister's singular achievement is to illuminate the contexts of these five images both at the time they were taken and as they relate to current events, an accomplishment all the more remarkable since—to paraphrase her new preface—we are today struggling to look backward at something that is still rushing ahead.

Author / Editor information

McAlisterMelani:

Melani McAlister is Associate Professor of American Studies and International Affairs at The George Washington University.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Preface To The 2005 Edition Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Preface To The First Edition Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Introduction Middle East Interests Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. "Benevolent Supremacy" The Biblical Epic at the Dawn of the American Century, 1947-1960 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
2. The Middle East In African American Cultural Politics, 1955-1972 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
3. King Tut, Commodity Nationalism, And The Politics Of Oil, 1973-1979 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
4. The Good Fight Israel after Vietnam, 1972-1980 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
5. Iran, Islam, And The Terrorist Threat, 1979-1989 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
6. Military Multiculturalism In The Gulf War And After, 1990-1999 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Conclusion<subtitle 9/11 and After: Snapshots on the Road to Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	266
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	363
Filmography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	395