Is there a Middle East? : the evolution of a geopolitical concept / edited by Michael E. Bonine, Abbas Amanat, and Michael Ezekiel Gasper.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bonine, Michael E., 1942- editor.

Amanat, Abbas, editor.

Gasper, Michael Ezekiel, 1963- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historiography.

Historical geography.

Middle East--Historical geography.

Middle East.

Middle East--Historiography.

Geopolitics--Middle East.

Geopolitics.

Middle East Region.

Physical Description:

xix, 319 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2012]

Summary:

Is the idea of the "Middle East" simply a geopolitical construct conceived by the West to serve particular strategic and economic interests--or can we identify geographical, historical, cultural, and political patterns to indicate some sort of internal coherence to this label? While the term has achieved common usage, no one studying the region has yet addressed whether this conceptualization has real meaning--and then articulated what and where the Middle East is, or is not. This volume fills the void, offering a diverse set of voices--from political and cultural historians, to social scientists, geographers, and political economists--to debate the possible manifestations and meanings of the Middle East. At a time when geopolitical forces, social currents, and environmental concerns have brought attention to the region, this volume examines the very definition and geographic and cultural boundaries of the Middle East in an unprecedented way. -- Book Description.

Contents:

Introduction: Is there a Middle East? : problematizing a virtual space / Abbas Amanat

The Eastern question and the Ottoman Empire : the genesis of the Near and Middle East in the nineteenth century / Huseyin Yilmaz

British and U.S. use and misuse of the term 'Middle East' / Roger Adelson

Of maps and regions : where is the geographer's Middle East? / Michael E. Bonine

Why are there no Middle Easterners in the Maghrib? / Ramzi Rouighi

When did the Holy Land stop being holy? : surveying the Middle East as sacred geography / Daniel Martin Varisco

The river's edge : the steppes of the Oxus and the boundaries of the Near/Middle East and Central Asia, c.1500-1800 / Arash Khazeni

An Islamicate Eurasia : vernacular perspectives on the early modern world / Gagan D.S. Sood

Scorched earth : the problematic environmental history that defines the Middle East / Diana K. Davis

American global economic policy and the civic order in the Middle East / James L. Gelvin

The Middle East through the lens of critical geopolitics : globalization, terrorism, and the Iraq War / Waleed Hazbun

Conclusion: There is a Middle East! / Michael Ezekiel Gasper.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-306) and index.

ISBN:

0804775273

9780804775267

0804775265

9780804775274

OCLC:

726819122

Publisher Number:

99956801754