Fall 2009

MES 322K • RE-FORMING THE ARAB EAST

Course Description

This course covers the troubled history of the Arab East since World War I. It proposes to examine in some detail part of the Middle East which is considered its heart. This class is designed to cater for the needs of (a) students who evince interest in the recent history of the region but do not have prior knowledge and (b) students who want to continue to study the region. The main question for consideration is which forces shaped the Arab East during the past century and gave it its current radical form? By exploring critical political, intellectual, cultural and economic themes such as colonialism and international intrigue, Arab and Pan Arab nationalism, secular modernism, the impact of Zionism, the Palestinian Revolution, military conflict, the rise of political Islam and the oil revolution, we would identify and examine the main internal and external forces, as well as the critical processes, that shaped the region and turned it into one of the most troubled corners of the world.

Grading Policy

Attendance and Participation 10% Written reports (3) 25% Midterm 25% Final 40%

Texts

Adeed Dawisha, Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003) Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab Israeli Conflict (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001) Charles Tripp, A History of Iraq (Cambridge; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002) James Gelvin, The Modern Middle East; A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) Kepel, Gilles, Jihad: the Trail of Political Islam (London; New York: I.B. Tauris, 2004) Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian identity: the Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997). pp. 177-209 Roger Owen & Sevket Pamuk, A History of Middle East Economies in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1999) Additional textbooks will be provided by the instructor.

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