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 61
Page
... knew existed. David H. Finnie's Pioneers East: The Early American Experience in the Middle East is the finest general study available about American missionaries in the Levant. Leo J. Bocage's The Public Career of Charles R. Crane goes ...
... knew existed. David H. Finnie's Pioneers East: The Early American Experience in the Middle East is the finest general study available about American missionaries in the Levant. Leo J. Bocage's The Public Career of Charles R. Crane goes ...
Page
... knew in Kuwait.” Given the circumstances of their lives to that point, for Bill and Janet not to have sympathized with the Palestinians would have been a thing inhuman. Janet wants to put this in context, however. A professional ...
... knew in Kuwait.” Given the circumstances of their lives to that point, for Bill and Janet not to have sympathized with the Palestinians would have been a thing inhuman. Janet wants to put this in context, however. A professional ...
Page
... knew about the Middle East. “Agnew was a great guy, a real decent sort, though, of course,” Bill lifts his white eyebrows, “he had his problems.” Not long after Agnew returned to Washington, Bill was promoted to the rank of ambassador ...
... knew about the Middle East. “Agnew was a great guy, a real decent sort, though, of course,” Bill lifts his white eyebrows, “he had his problems.” Not long after Agnew returned to Washington, Bill was promoted to the rank of ambassador ...
Page
... knew as a boy was such a peaceful place,” says David, who like his father and greatgrandfather grew up to become president of the American University of Beirut. Indeed, “peaceful” and “sleepy” are words frequently applied to the Lebanon ...
... knew as a boy was such a peaceful place,” says David, who like his father and greatgrandfather grew up to become president of the American University of Beirut. Indeed, “peaceful” and “sleepy” are words frequently applied to the Lebanon ...
Page
... knew no territorial bounds. Of the Nestorians in Urmia, there turned out to be only six hundred, compared with two thousand Jews and over twentyseven thousand Moslems. Though the Nestorian community, as well as elements of the Jewish ...
... knew no territorial bounds. Of the Nestorians in Urmia, there turned out to be only six hundred, compared with two thousand Jews and over twentyseven thousand Moslems. Though the Nestorian community, as well as elements of the Jewish ...
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