Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group press has announced that the eagerly awaited hardcover volumn, “Postcololonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli Conflict” edited by Philip Carl Salzman and Donna Robinson Divine will be delayed until May, 2008 for publication. In the meantime, the papers from this SPME-sponsored conference are available through the currently available Israel Affairs,Volume 13, No. 3. October 2007 in soft cover.

For a contribution of $500 or more, SPME will send a free copy of the hardcover edition when it is available in May, 2008. Click here

For a contribution of $360 to $499, SPME will send a free copy of the Israel Affairs issue right now. Click here

To pre-order the hardcover edition from Routledge Press click here.

Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israel Conflict
Philip Carl Salzman and Donna Robinson Divine, editors

About the Title

Postcolonial theory is one of the main frameworks for thinking about the world and acting to change the world. Arising in academia and reshaping humanities and social sciences disciplines, postcolonial theory argues that our ideas about foreigners, ‘the other,’ particularly our negative ideas about them, are determined not by a true will to understand, but rather by our desire to conquer, dominate, and exploit them. According to postcolonial theory, the cause of poverty, tyranny, and misery in the world, and of failed societies around the world, is Euro-American imperialism and colonialism.

Previously published as a special issue of Israel Affairs, this work examines and challenges postcolonial theory. In scholarly, research-based papers, the specialist authors examine various facets of postcolonial theory and application. First, the theoretical assumption and formulations of postcolonial theory are scrutinized and found dubious. Second, the deleterious impact on academic disciplines of postcolonial theory is demonstrated. Third, the distorted postcolonial view of history, its obsession with current events to the exclusion of the historical basis of events, is exposed and corrected. Fourth, an examination of Middle Eastern culture challenges the assumption that these societies have been shaped entirely, and victimized, by Western intrusion. Finally, exploring the Arab-Israel conflict, the one-sided case of postcolonial Arabism is explored and found to be faulty.

Donna Robinson Divine
“Introduction”

Irfan Khawaja
“Essentialism, Consistency, and Islam: A Critique of Edward Said’s
Orientalism”

Ronald Niezen
“Postcolonialism and the Utopian Imagination”

Ed Morgan
“Orientalism and the Foreign Sovereign: Today I am a Man of Law”

Laurie Zoloth
“Mistaken-ness and the Nature of the ‘Post”: The Ethics and the
Inevitability of Error in theoretical Work”

Herbert Lewis
“The Influence of Edward Said and Orientalism on Anthropology, or: Can the
Anthropologist Speak?”

Gerald Steinberg
“Postcolonial theory and the Ideology of Peace Studies”

Efraim Karsh
“The Missing Piece: Islamic Imperialism”

David Cook
“The Muslim Man’s Burden: Muslim Intellectuals Confront their Imperialist
Past”

Andrew Bostom
“Negating the Legacy of Jihad in Palestine”

Philip Carl Salzman
“Arab Culture and Postcolonial Theory”

Richard Landes
“Edward Said and the Culture of Honour and Shame: Orientalism and our
Misperceptions of the Arab-Israeli Conflict”

Gideon Shimoni
“Postcolonial Theory and the History of Zionism”

S. Ilan Troen
“De-Judaising the Homeland: Academic Politics in Re-Writing the History of
Palestine”

Donna Robinson Divine
“The Middle East Conflict and its Postcolonial Discontents”

Irwin Mansdorf
“The Political Psychology of Postcolonial Ideology in the Arab World: an
analysis of ‘Occupation’ and the ‘Right of Return’”