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. |
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... say, the Iraq crisis was brewing after Israel had made a comprehensive peace with several Arab states. I think there might have been less unanimity in such a circumstance—perhaps even a revolt. In a carefully documented study of U.S. ...
... say, the Iraq crisis was brewing after Israel had made a comprehensive peace with several Arab states. I think there might have been less unanimity in such a circumstance—perhaps even a revolt. In a carefully documented study of U.S. ...
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... says: “I thought that was really something, the way the Imam liked to feel the wildcat scratch him—to feel the cat's ... say basic.” Janet cuts in, to complete the memory of Yemen: “Don't forget Amadeo Guillet, dear.” Guillet, an Italian ...
... says: “I thought that was really something, the way the Imam liked to feel the wildcat scratch him—to feel the cat's ... say basic.” Janet cuts in, to complete the memory of Yemen: “Don't forget Amadeo Guillet, dear.” Guillet, an Italian ...
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... says all this while his visitor takes notes. Bill has invited his visitor into the privacy of his own home in order to put such things in their proper perspective. The visitor therefore has a responsibility to do so: What Bill means to say ...
... says all this while his visitor takes notes. Bill has invited his visitor into the privacy of his own home in order to put such things in their proper perspective. The visitor therefore has a responsibility to do so: What Bill means to say ...
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... says, “people may think you're antiSemitic.” Bill admits that “to a man, the American community in Syria and Lebanon remained opposed to the State of Israel and some even crossed the line into antiSemitism. The community finally had to ...
... says, “people may think you're antiSemitic.” Bill admits that “to a man, the American community in Syria and Lebanon remained opposed to the State of Israel and some even crossed the line into antiSemitism. The community finally had to ...
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... 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 of this era. Talcott Seelye, a future ...
... 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 of this era. Talcott Seelye, a future ...
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 | |
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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