Arabists: The Romance of an American EliteSimon and Schuster, 1995 M07 1 - 368 pages A tight-knit group closely linked by intermarriage as well as class and old school ties, the “Arabists” were men and women who spent much of their lives living and working in the Arab world as diplomats, military attaches, intelligence agents, scholar-adventurers, and teachers. As such, the Arabists exerted considerable influence both as career diplomats and as bureaucrats within the State Department from the early nineteenth century to the present. But over time, as this work shows, the group increasingly lost touch with a rapidly changing American society, growing both more insular and headstrong and showing a marked tendency to assert the Arab point of view. Drawing on interviews, memoirs, and other official and private sources, Kaplan reconstructs the 100-year history of the Arabist elite, demonstrating their profound influence on American attitudes toward the Middle East, and tracing their decline as an influx of ethnic and regional specialists has transformed the State Department and challenged the power of the old elite. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 63
Page
... cultures.” Bill's belief is that “the Moslems and their culture will be a force in the next century.” In Bill's view, conditions in Yemen, while medieval, were never primitive. “Primitive,” Bill intones, “is a word we don't use in this ...
... cultures.” Bill's belief is that “the Moslems and their culture will be a force in the next century.” In Bill's view, conditions in Yemen, while medieval, were never primitive. “Primitive,” Bill intones, “is a word we don't use in this ...
Page
... cultural societies, and their printing presses, who led the movement to legitimize the term Syria not only in the ... culture,” Bill explains. “For example, they peeked behind the curtains in the women's area of the palace before the ...
... cultural societies, and their printing presses, who led the movement to legitimize the term Syria not only in the ... culture,” Bill explains. “For example, they peeked behind the curtains in the women's area of the palace before the ...
Page
... cultures. The word almost presumes guilt. The very syllables resonate with sympathy and possession—of and with the Arabs—in a way that a word like Sinologist does not. Murphy's wife, Anne, nods sadly. “If you call yourself an Arabist ...
... cultures. The word almost presumes guilt. The very syllables resonate with sympathy and possession—of and with the Arabs—in a way that a word like Sinologist does not. Murphy's wife, Anne, nods sadly. “If you call yourself an Arabist ...
Page
... culture and a terrain as one acquires a rare and beautiful book.* But Americans like Bill's parents sought something more tantalizing. They sought to change this terrain, to improve upon it, using their own model. They manifested a ...
... culture and a terrain as one acquires a rare and beautiful book.* But Americans like Bill's parents sought something more tantalizing. They sought to change this terrain, to improve upon it, using their own model. They manifested a ...
Page
... culture quite like the American missionary colonies in the Moslem world. It is a story that first needs to be addressed before we can even begin to discover who, exactly, Bill Stoltzfus is and who, exactly, the other people are who have ...
... culture quite like the American missionary colonies in the Moslem world. It is a story that first needs to be addressed before we can even begin to discover who, exactly, Bill Stoltzfus is and who, exactly, the other people are who have ...
Contents
Aggrieved Area Experts | |
Mugged by Reality | |
Horan of Arabia | |
Indiana Jones | |
Debacle | |
The Icy Eyes That Had Contemplated Nineveh | |
Cowering in a Dark Alley | |
Hostages to Idealism | |
Reality | |
Mr Foreign Service | |
Old Hands | |
Never a Dull Moment | |
Redemption | |
A New Species? | |
Bibliography | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Akins American missionaries antiSemitism April Glaspie Arab country Arab nationalism Arab world ArabIsraeli Arabists Aviv Baghdad became Beirut Bill Stoltzfus Bliss British cables Cairo career Christian Cluverius colleagues College Congregationalist Coon Crane culture Custis Damascus David Department Department’s desert Doughty Eagleton Eastern Egypt Eli Smith expatriates Falashas Feisal Foreign Service French FSOs Glaspie’s going Hermann Eilts Hume Horan Iran Iraq Iraq’s Iraqi Islam Israel Israeli Jerry Weaver Jerusalem Jewish Jews Jidda Kelly Khartoum Killgore Kissinger Kissinger’s knew Kuwait language Lawrence Lawrence’s learn Arabic Lebanon lived Loy Henderson Maronites Mesopotamia Middle East military mission Moslem NEA assistant secretary never officer Operation Moses Palestine Palestinian Parker peace Philby political president Protestant Roy Atherton Sadat Saddam Saudi Arabia says Seelye’s Shiite Sisco SixDay Soviet Sterner Sudan Sudanese Syria Talcott Seelye U.S. ambassador U.S. diplomats U.S. embassy United University Veliotes Washington Western Wiley William Yemen