HIST 3260: United States and the Middle East since 1783
(click for larger image)
(Fall 2008)
Tuesday-Thursday: 0930-1045
Bate 2021
Prospectus:
HIST 3260 is not meant to be a survey of the United States and of the Middle East. It is a course on the history of American interests and involvement in the Middle East since the late-eighteenth century. I will survey (in brief) the Middle East, both before and since the rise of Islam and discuss the broader interaction between the West and the region. But the main focus of the course will remain on the United States.
The goals of the course are for the student to develop:
- An understanding of the fundamental differences between Islamic and Western cultures, broadly defined;
- An understanding of the interaction between the Middle East and the West since the rise of Islam;
- An understanding of “Americanism;”
- An understanding of “modernization” and its concomitant pressures and costs;
- An understanding of the debate over Edward Said’s Orientalism and other (e.g., Bernard Lewis) theories meant to explain the clash between Orient and Occident;
- An understanding of the long-standing (i.e., pre-petroleum—yes, yes, oil is a factor, but it is not all about oil; our first “arms-for-hostage” agreement was signed in 1796!) roots of American involvement in the region;
- An understanding of the gradual assumption (beginning in the nineteenth century) by the United States of the role of formerly played by Great Britain;
- An understanding that the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) is, in fact, a Global War on Jihadism (GWOJ);
- An understanding of the term "jihad," not as it is defined by some western academics, but as it is used by jihadists such as Osama bin Laden;
- An understanding that this is not a conflict that is going to be won by any single American administration of either party;
- An understanding that you will most likely live the rest of your lives under the shadow of the "Global War on Jihadism;"
- An understanding of the possible and likely directions current events could take in the future.
"Decatur Boarding the Tripolitan Gunboat"
Tripoli (now Tripoli, Libya) 3 August 1804: oil by Orlando S. Lagman, 1965, after the painting by Dennis Malone Carter
Amazon Links for Required Texts
(All books will be available in the ECU Book Store)
The American steam sloop Ticonderoga, in the harbor at Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (now Izmir, Turkey), in the late 1860s
Readings Accessible to Students Only (coming)
President Franklin Roosevelt and Saudi King Abdul Aziz meet on board the American cruiser Quincy in Egypt's Great Bitter Lake on 14 February 1945
Documents
The American destroyer Cole, in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, following the attack on 13 October 2000
Relevant Hyperlinks
Arab News (Saudi English Language Daily)
United States Central Command (USCENTCOM)
Haaretz -Israeli, Labour-leaning (in English)
IRNA-Islamic Republic News Agency Iran (in English)
Jerusalem Post - Israeli, Likud-leaning (in English)
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitoring Project
Tehran Times Iranian (in English)
Turkey Post (Turkish press review in English)
November 2004: Iraqi Special Security Forces and U.S. Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division remove weapons and ammunition from crypts in a graveyard in Fallujah, Iraq .