Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question
by Edward W. Said (Editor), Christopher Hitchens (Editor)
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Since the 1948 war which drove them from their heartland, the Palestinian people have consistently been denied the most basic democratic rights. Blaming the Victims shows how the historical fate of the Palestinians has been justified by spurious academic attempts to dismiss their claim to a home within the boundaries of historical Palestine and even to deny their very existence. Beginning with a thorough exposé of the fraudulent assertions of Joan Peters concerning the indigenous show more inhabitants of Palestine prior to 1948, the book then turns to similar instances in Middle East research where the truth about the Palestinians has been systematically suppressed: from the bogus--though still widely believed--explanations of why so many Palestinians fled their homes in 1948, to today's distorted propaganda about PLO terrorism. The volume also includes sharp critiques of the wide consensus in the USA which supports Israel and its territorial ambitions while maintaining total silence about the competing reality of the Palestinians. show lessTags
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The subtitle of this bk is "Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question". I'm barely knowledgable about Palestine, basically just supportive of the Palestinian cause because it seems so flagrantly clear that the Israelis have displaced them. At any rate, I found it to be convincing that the editors, Edward Said & Christopher Hitchens, are legitimate scholars on the subject & found that they stated their case clearly & convincingly.
The Israel-Palestine controversy viewed from the Palestinian side.
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Author Information
Born in Jerusalem and educated at Victoria College in Cairo and at Princeton and Harvard universities, Edward Said has taught at Columbia University since 1963 and has been a visiting professor at Harvard and Johns Hopkins University. He has had an unusual dual career as a professor of comparative literature, a recognized expert on the novelist show more and short story writer Joseph Conrad, (see Vol. 1) and as one of the most significant contemporary writers on the Middle East, especially the Palestinian question and the plight of Palestinians living in the occupied territories. Although he is not a trained historian, his Orientalism (1978) is one of the most stimulating critical evaluations of traditional Western writing on Middle Eastern history, societies, and literature. In the controversial Covering Islam (1981), he examined how the Western media have biased Western perspectives on the Middle East. A Palestinian by birth, Said has sought to show how Palestinian history differs from the rest of Arabic history because of the encounter with Jewish settlers and to present to Western readers a more broadly representative Palestinian position than they usually obtain from Western sources. Said is presently Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia, editor of Arab Studies Quarterly, and chair of the board of trustees of the Institute of Arab Studies. He is a member of the Palestinian National Council as well as the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. (Bowker Author Biography) Edward W. Said is University Professor of English & Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of nineteen books, including "Orientalism" (which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award), "Culture & Imperialism", "The End of the Peace Process", & "Out of Place", a memoir. He lives in New York City. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Christopher Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England on April 13, 1949. He was a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and wrote for numerous other publications throughout his lifetime. He was the author of numerous books including No One Left to Lie To, For the Sake of Argument, Prepared for the Worst, God Is Not Great, Hitch-22: A Memoir, and show more Arguably. He died due to complication from esophageal cancer on December 15, 2011 at the age of 62. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Politics and Government
- DDC/MDS
- 956.04 — History & geography History of Asia Middle East Asia: Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan Middle East 1945-1980; 20th Century
- LCC
- DS119.7 .B5765 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Asia History of Asia Israel (Palestine). The Jews
- BISAC
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- Members
- 238
- Popularity
- 136,734
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
