The Arabists: The Romance of an American EliteFree Press, 1993 - 333 pages Here is the untold story of an inbred, gifted, and powerful elite of families and friends who dominated America's relations with the Middle East for over a century. Known to Foreign Service colleagues as "the Arabists", these were the men and women who had spent much of their lives, usually with their families, living in the Arab world as diplomats, military attaches, intelligence agents, and educators. Descended from the missionaries, scholars, and explorers who first ventured into the region - an offshoot of the WASP elite that ruled America during the nineteenth century - the Arabists were an exclusive caste linked by complex social, institutional, and family ties. Thoroughly at home in Arab cultures and often enjoying relations of longstanding intimacy with the monarchs and ruling elites of Arab countries, these American expatriates lived a charmed lifestyle that has become a source of intense nostalgia among the Arabists themselves as well as a symbol of their romance with Arab culture and increasing isolation from American society and interests. The Arabists dominated American policy and shaped our perception of the Arab world throughout the colonial and interwar periods. But after World War II, the diplomatic corps began to change, reflecting the country's new ethnic and social diversity. Kaplan describes the impact of this change within the State Department, showing how the advent of Irish Catholics, Jews, and Harvard-trained regional experts created internal pressures that slowly loosened the Arabists' grip on Middle East diplomacy in the postwar period. Drawing on interviews, memoirs, and other official and private sources, Kaplan reconstructs the hundred-year history of theArabist elite, and traces their decline against the background of this social transformation. |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... Beirut in 1924 , the son of Protestant mission- aries from the Midwest ( his father was a Mennonite from Ohio , his mother a Presbyterian from Minnesota ) . “ My birth certificate reads " Beirut , Syr- ia , " not " Beirut , Lebanon ...
... Beirut in 1924 , the son of Protestant mission- aries from the Midwest ( his father was a Mennonite from Ohio , his mother a Presbyterian from Minnesota ) . “ My birth certificate reads " Beirut , Syr- ia , " not " Beirut , Lebanon ...
Page 26
... Beirut was a modernizing harbor town with a gem - like climate and lovely , European - like mountain scenery . As the Goodells and the Birds were joined by Eli Smith and others in the late 1820s , Beirut started to take on the role of a ...
... Beirut was a modernizing harbor town with a gem - like climate and lovely , European - like mountain scenery . As the Goodells and the Birds were joined by Eli Smith and others in the late 1820s , Beirut started to take on the role of a ...
Page 35
... Beirut chapter of the American Red Cross , would fume that while the Americans in Syria operated " from purely hu- manitarian motives , " French priests were " agents of political propaganda . " And it deepened the alienation of ...
... Beirut chapter of the American Red Cross , would fume that while the Americans in Syria operated " from purely hu- manitarian motives , " French priests were " agents of political propaganda . " And it deepened the alienation of ...
Contents
Three generations Three wars Three marriages | 1 |
Dream | 11 |
Home to Lebanon | 13 |
Copyright | |
17 other sections not shown
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Akins ambassador American Arab world Arabists arrived assistant Atherton Baghdad became become began Beirut Bill Bliss born British called career Christian close College Coon culture deal Department diplomats Dodge early Egypt Eilts embassy experience explains fact force Foreign Service French Glaspie going hands head Henderson Henry Kissinger Horan House interests Iran Iraq Iraqi Israel Israeli Jewish Jews John kind King Kissinger knew known Kurds language later Lawrence learned Lebanon lived meeting Middle East military mission missionaries Moslem never officer operation Parker peace Persian political president Protestant region relations Saddam Saudi Arabia says secretary Seelye served Sisco staff Sudan Syria talk thing told turn United University wanted Washington Weaver Western Wiley writes