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The Colonial Present
Afghanistan. Palestine. Iraq
Derek Gregory (Author)
9781577180906, Wiley
Paperback / softback, published 4 June 2004
400 pages
23.1 x 15.5 x 2.4 cm, 0.572 kg
“This is a great book. 'Gregory has written a book entwining global geography with social danger. The Colonial Present takes us through the contemporary wars in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and Iraq as connected projects of imperial ambition... The Colonial Present is a refreshingly angry book, with all the geographical and historical scholarship to buttress its indictment of American, Israeli and British behavior around the world. It is exquisitely written... This book's screaming truths are must-read heresy." "An impassioned plea by one of the world’s most eminent geographers to displace the distorted imaginative geographies that have so corrupted our representations of the Islamic world with a geographical imagination that enlarges and enhances our understandings. The long historical geography of the colonial encounter in the Middle East is here laid bare in all its twisted detail in order to comprehend the fractures underpinning contemporary political impasses in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The Colonial Present is a ‘must read’ for all those concerned for peace and justice in our time.” "The originality and profundity of Derek Gregory's The Colonial Present puts it at the top of my list." “Brilliantly condenses the multiple geographies of colonialism ... so that their contemporary entanglements with the flexings of modern imperial power crackle with intensity. Using September 11 2001 as a political fulcrum, Gregory traces the searing effects of fluid but durable cartographies of violence in the intersecting wars in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq.” “Powerfully and persuasively argued. Passionately written. A daring, brilliant analysis … Quite simply the most significant book written by a geographer in some time.” “The Colonial Present marshals concepts of imaginative geography and insight from the spatialisation of cultural and social theory developed in the past thirty years … An impassioned but theoretically rich critique of the ‘war on terror’ and the wider Zeitgeist that it shapes and embodies … Crucially, the book is a compelling critique of and American Empire … This is a significant book … Vintage Gregory again; enticing and provoking his audience … There is no doubting that The Colonial Present sets both standards and agendas.” "The Colonial Present is an important and politiclly engaged book."
Neil Smith, Los Angeles Times
David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism
Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton; author most recently of The Great Terror War (2003)
Cindi Katz, Graduate Centre, CityUniversity of New York
Allan Pred, University of California, Berkeley
Environment and Planning D
Area
The Colonial Present: Afghanistan. Palestine. Iraq In this powerful and passionate critique of the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan and its extensions into Palestine and Iraq, Derek Gregory traces the long history of British and American involvements in the Middle East and shows how colonial power continues to cast long shadows over our own present.
List of Figures xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvi 1 The Colonial Present 1 Foucault’s Laughter 1 The Present Tense 5 2 Architectures of Enmity 17 Imaginative Geographies 17 “Why do they hate us?” 20 September 11 24 3 “The Land where Red Tulips Grew” 30 Great Games 30 Uncivil Wars and Transnational Terrorism 36 The Sorcerer’s Apprentices 44 4 “Civilization” and “Barbarism” 47 The Visible and the Invisible 47 Territorialization, Targets, and Technoculture 49 Deadly Messengers 56 Spaces of the Exception 62 Deconstruction 72 5 Barbed Boundaries 76 America’s Israel 76 Diaspora, Dispossession, and Disaster 78 Occupation, Coercion, and Colonization 89 Compliant Cartographies 95 Camp David and Goliath 102 6 Defiled Cities 107 Ground Zeros 107 Besieging Cartographies 117 Identities and Oppositions 138 7 The Tyranny of Strangers 144 “Not as conquerors or enemies . . .” 145 Coups and Conflicts 151 Desert Storms and Urban Nightmares 156 8 Boundless War 180 Black September 180 Killing Grounds 197 The Cutting-Room War 214 9 Gravity’s Rainbows 248 Connective Dissonance 248 The Colonial Present and Cultures of Travel 256 Pandora’s Spaces 258 Notes 263 Guide to Further Reading 352 Index 359
Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP]
