Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

An enlightening story about the generations of Americans who have come into contact with the Arab world, starting with the 18th century Protestant missionaries who arrived in the region and leading up to the late 20th century's ambassadors and State Department officials. In contrast to the hostility that characterizes U.S.-Arab relations in most respects today, for many years Americans were viewed highly favorably in the Middle East. Unlike the British and French colonialists, through their good works the Americans built a popular perception of themselves among the Arabs as friends and disinterested purveyors of modern education and medicine. The first Americans to spend time in "Araby" were likewise charmed by the local inhabitants and became genuinely invested in their wellbeing. This mutual sympathy was transmitted down for generations, only starting to fray with the creation of Israel and the decades of war and double-dealing that followed. Even still, as Kaplan shows, American officials well-versed in Arab culture and language have traditionally retained far greater sympathy for the Arab perspective than the general public in the U.S., at least to some degree up until the early-1990s when this book was written.

With some exceptions, the original "Arabists" came from a very particular northeastern WASP milieu. The State Department Near Eastern Affairs office retained that elite composition until the Nixon-era when it began to take on a more ethnic middle-class character. Kaplan is particularly concerned with the issue of anti-Semitism among some Arabists, though he takes an evenhanded stance on the subject. Kaplan himself is an American who volunteered for the IDF in his youth and his sympathies in the Arab-Israel conflict are obvious. Having said that, he never strikes me as propagandist and you really have to respect his take on events even when you disagree with them. In this book dealing so heavily with WASPy northeasterners who were often hostile to Israel, he still conveys that their position was almost always born out of sympathy with the Arabs rather than racial animus towards Jews. Missionaries, teachers, envoys and others who'd spent extended time in the Middle East were often charmed by the warm traditional culture of the Arabs, while the Germanic-eastern European mores of the Israelis tended to be alienating. The sympathy that foreign service officers usually developed for the Arabs made them disproportionately favorable to their political positions, even while U.S. foreign policy began downgrading the importance of area expertise in favor of placating domestic audiences and lobby groups.

There are too many characters from this book to go over in full, but I was really fascinated by the lives of Loy Henderson, Dick Murphy, Daniel Bliss and others who built America's first ties with the Arab world and established institutions like the American University of Beirut which have had an outsized impact on intellectual life in the region. It really comes across clearly how the creation of Israel, which Arabists almost universally opposed, was the beginning of the end of America's warm relationship with the Arab world. The book is rich with quotes from frustrated career diplomats laying out their opposition to the United States one-sided approach to the conflict and presciently articulating the consequences that it would have.

Kaplan is a great writer and he really makes the history here come alive. This is one of his best works and a must-read for those interested in the United States history of engagement with the Middle East. While one may disagree with him at times, he is fair and earnest scholar who has done a great service in writing this incredible story.