Title: Is there a Middle East? : the evolution of a geopolitical concept /
Authors: Amanat, Abbas.; Bonine, Michael E., 1942-; Gasper, Michael Ezekiel, 1963-; Bonine, Michael E., 1942-; Amanat, Abbas,; Gasper, Michael Ezekiel, 1963-; Bonine, Michael E., 1942-; Amanat, Abbas,; Gasper, Michael Ezekiel, 1963-
Publisher: Stanford University Press,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Geopolitics Middle East.; Middle East Historical geography.; Middle East Historiography.
Abstract: 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.