Envisioning the Arab Future
Modernization in US-Arab Relations, 1945–1967

This book reinterprets US-Arab relations by examining conflicts between American Cold War policies and the modernizing visions of Arab nationalists, Islamists, and communists.

Nathan J. Citino (Author)

9781107036628, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 February 2017

340 pages, 12 b/w illus. 2 maps
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.61 kg

'… brings a host of often unfamiliar Arab voices to a Western audience and contains striking, novel insights on nearly every page.' Salim Yaqub, International Journal of Middle East Studies

Decades before 9/11 and the 'Arab Spring', US and Arab elites contended over the future of the Middle East. Through unprecedented research in Arabic and English, Envisioning the Arab Future details how Americans and Arabs - nationalists, Islamists, and communists - disputed the meaning of modernization within a shared set of Cold War-era concepts. Faith in linear progress, the idea that society functioned as a 'system', and a fascination with speed united officials and intellectuals who were otherwise divided by language and politics. This book assesses the regional implications of US power while examining a range of topics that transcends the Arab-Israeli conflict, including travel, communities, gender, oil, agriculture, Iraqi nationalism, Nasser's Arab Socialism, and hijackings in both the United States and the Middle East. By uncovering a shared history of modernization between Arabs and Americans, Envisioning the Arab Future challenges assumptions about a 'clash of civilizations' and profoundly reinterprets the antecedents of today's crises.

Introduction. The 'history of the future'
1. The age of speed
2. Imperial legacies
3. City of the future
4. Yeoman farmers
5. People's court
6. New men
7. Changing course
Conclusion. A better future
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], History of the Americas [HBJK], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]