Nearest East

by Kieser, Hans-lukas

• ISBN13: 9781439902226
• ISBN10: 1439902224
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-28
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr

Summary

Long before oil interests shaped American interaction with the Middle East, the U.S. had a strong influence on the late Ottoman and post-Ottoman region. Covering the period from approximately 1800 to the 1970s, Hans-Lukas Kieserrs"s compellingNearest Easttells the story of this intimate, identity-building relationship between the U.S. and the Near East. Kieser chronicles how American missionaries worked to implement their belief in Biblical millennialism, enlightened modernity, and a modern Zion-Israel. Millennialism was part of an American identity that constituted itself religiously in the interaction with and the representation of the "cradle of Zion." As such, "going Near East" was-at least to American evangelical Protestants-in some ways more important than colonizing the American West. However, many Ottoman Muslims felt threatened by the American missionaries perceiving their successful institutions as an estranging challenge from the outside. Measuring the long twisted road from the missionary Zion-builders of the early 19th century to the privileged US-Israeli partnership in the late 20th century,Nearest Eastlooks carefully on both sides of the relationship. Kieser uses a wide range of Ottoman, Turkish, French, German and other sources, unfamiliar to most Anglophone readers, to tell this story that will appeal to historians of all stripes.

Author Biography

Hans-Lukas Kieser is Adjunct Professor (Privatdozent) for Modern History at the University of Zurich. He is editor of Turkey beyond Nationalism, a coeditor (with Dominik J. Schaller) of The Armenian Genocide and the Shoah and the author of Der verpasste Friede (The Squandered Peace).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The United States and the Near East, circa 1800	p. 15
A Quest for "Zion" and Peace on Earth: Mission to the Bible Lands	p. 34
Dream and Trauma: Missionary America and Young Turkey, 1908-1923	p. 63
Oil, Palestine-Israel, and Empire of the Good	p. 98
American Steps and Shortcuts to "Zion" after 1967	p. 137
Conclusion	p. 153
Notes	p. 165
Selected Bibliography	p. 197
Index	p. 201
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