Inflame's, Enlighten's and is Highly Controversial

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Prof Terry Tucker, Senior Doctrine Developer Saudi Arabian NG Modernization Program;
This book is heavy, scholarly and controversial. The author explores culture, nationalism and imperialism through the prism of literature. You will need to be very open minded when you read this and in some cases you will find yourself both enlightened and yet disgusted. Set this aside and think about what the author conveys from the position of an "Arab_American".
As an American working in the Middle East I have found this book extremely helpful. This book will not be an easy weekend read. You will need to plan on taking some time to think about this book and digest what the author presents. If your highly patriotic or nationalistic in your inclination, you will definately need to set aside some extra time to get over the emotional impact that this book may have on you

A book intended to deflect attention from Arab racism

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This book is essentially about how culture is used to promote the interest of stronger, imperial powers. Said condemns intellectuals in the West who in his eyes are "agents of exploitation". Yet Said himself is an agent of racism.

A Pan Arabist, he always supported Arab unity and "Islam" at the expense of non-Arab and non-Moslem peoples. Said directs and manipulates the Western taste for self criticim, and all that does is deflect the world's attention from Arab and Moslem attrocities committed against Christians, Kurds, Jews, Israelis, Coptic Christians, non-Arab Sudanese, etc.

Thus, reading Said, you would never realize that Sadam Hussein's poisoning of the Kurds has never been condemned by one Arab intellectual or leader. This is because a racist prevalent attitude in the Arab mind is that the entire Middle East should be Arab. This also explains the attitude towards Israel, a country that is predominantly non-Moslem and speaks a Middle Eastern language other than Arabic.

The pity is that Said himself is a Christian, yet he never spoke on behalf of Coptic Christians in Egypt, or the right of Christians to practice their faith in Saudi Arabia and probably other places in the Arab World. He is facilitating the overall aim of PanArab Nationalists by distracting the West from what is happening in the Arab world.

For a better understanding of relations between the West and Islam, I recommend books by Bernard Lewis, such as "The Moslem Discovery of Europe" and the "Jews of Islam". I also recommend books by the Egyptian scholar and Jewish refugee Yael Bat Yeor, such as "The Dhimmi".

Promote Mutual Understanding Through Text

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This book is highly recommended to understand the fact that imperalism goes beyond the political and economic domination. Imperialism stayed in the most subtle way, in the culture. Said clearly described that the reaction toward imperialism is mutual: from the Western side, the prejudice and biased and the supremacy-feeling, which unfortunately still existed today; and from the "other side", also prejudice and to the extreme side, anti-Western.

Readers who knows Said's background well will understand that Edward Said had a long commitment in building understanding between the "West" and the other,and contrast to some of the reviewers' accuses that "he forgive terrorism". Not at all. Said opposed terrorism. He was very much concern about the idea of " to valued mutuale experience in order to understand the imperialism in a whole", and I think that is the main idea of the book.

A fine reference

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Edward W.Said's Culture and Imperialism explores seemingly difficult areas of postcolonial discourse with consummate ease, carefully and clearly definining terms and writing an utterly convincing piece. As with all of his texts, Culture and Imperialism's main strength is in the conviction of the writer as he puts forward his claims. An invaluable tool for those approaching Postcolonialism, Culture and Imperialism is quite possibly the most illuminating piece of writing I have considered. A fine text, and one of immeasurable usefulness.

Universally true, but only applied selectively

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It is hard to evaluate this book.

Said has done a magnificent job of cateloguing the various ways that European authors, principally British and French, have acquiesced in, reinforced or justified imperialism.

The trouble is that this is almost universally true of most literature for most times and places for most of human history.

Historically, literature has been the product of a literate class, with both the education and leisure to write.

These have almost always occured at the hearts of power structures or nexus, such as kingdoms or empires, commanding both the resources, human and material, and the traditions and information out of which literature has usually, if not always, been composed (Said himself addresses the traditional origins of literature, quoting Elliot).

Homer wrote at the heart of a Hellenic colonial community; the Hebrew bible was composed of court records and redacted in the imperial Babylon that permitted the Jewish exiles to restore their state; the New Testament was composed or redacted, chiefly in Alexandria and Rome and, along with most Patristic literature assumes the right of Rome to rule and often censures the Jews for their rebelliousness; the Quran is the pamphlet for Jihad, the conquest of unbelievers by believers or Arab Islamic imperialism, itself modelled on the Israelite conquest of Canaan.

Said undermines his otherwise excellent thesis by making s qualitative distinction between modern European Christian and postChristian empires, and those that preceded them, by they Arab or Turkish Islamic, classical pagan or Christian.

I think this a little problematical.

Surely the difference between modern and ancient imperialism is one of degree, not kind?

Surely the urge to acquire land and resources, human and material, by force is, in at least some sense, common to all?

Historically, the literature produced in all these structures, has reflected their imperial situation.

Human nature has rarely refused the benefits that empire accrues, and this is as true for the ancient Athenian tragedians and comics as for Austen or Dickens.

The Arabian nights assumes imperial power structures (Scheherezade is a queen, for heaven's sake!).

The mercantile adventures of Sinbad the sailor assume a right to sail and trade in a wider Islamic empire: surely Dombey and Son, whom Said singles out for this assumption, are not alone in this.

Similarly, Aristotle's Politics assume and justify an inherent Hellenic right to rule the world and, as the traditional tutor of Alexander the great, Aristotle could be said to have played his part in establishing the 'legitimacy' of the Hellenistic empire (including, ultimately, the province of Syria Palaestina, the origin of Said's native 'Palestine').

Indeed, some of Aristotle's arguments later appear in Islamic literature.

Said leaves himself open to the charge of applying a universal principle in a highly selective and partisan manner.

To pursue his own agenda, Pro Palestinian Arab and culturally Islamic, he has criticised modern European literature but left the culture of, say, imperial Islam unscathed.

His work is undoubtedly worth reading as a catelogue of the many evils of modern European empires committed against subject non Europeans.

It is also, as far as I am any judge, a comprehensive survey of postimperial and postcolonial indigenous literary and historiographical responses to empire and its ravages.

Said's partisanship is understandable.

Yet, one cannot help but feel, as a work of universal merit, it is flawed and one sided.