Use this guide to choose topics for your Reading Responses and possibly also for your Term Essay. Use the History of the Middle East Database for basic facts and outlines of events and movements. Some of the more specific topics below are linked to items on the database. The World Factbook (CIA) can be extremely useful. See also Benchmarks in Islamic History , The Political and Religious Landscape of the Middle East at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century, History by Region or State, History According to Chronology, and Overview of Islam. The footnotes in this book are especially rich and useful.
Introduction: The Perils of Ignoring History
See footnote no. 1 on p. 177 where Khalidi tells us what he means when he uses the term "Middle East." (See also and origins of other terms)
Discussion point throughout the book: Is the United States an empire?
Chapter One: The Legacy of the Western Encounter With the Middle East
See footnote no. 21 and references to Osama bin Laden and 9/11.
See footnote no. 28 and the reference to the influential work of the late Edward Said (an alumnus of Northfield Mount Hermon). Note especially his critically important book Orientalism. Norman Daniel's book, Islam and the West, is perhaps the best book in print on medieval Christianity's hostility toward Islam.
| Halabja | History of Modern Iraq |
| The run up to the 2003 war. | European colonialism in Middle East |
| Formation of Modern Middle East | 2003 Gulf War |
| Roots of Arab-Israeli Conflict |
Chapter Two: America, the West, and Democracy in the Middle East
See footnote no. 41 on Gilles Kepel, Jihad.
Chapter Three: The Middle East: Geostrategy and Oil
| Key Events in the History of Iran |
| History of Modern Iraq |
| Wahhabis and Saudis |
| Transcript PBS Frontline's "House of Saud" |
Chapter Four: The United States and Palestine
See the Islamic Middle East Course Study Guide on the conflict for comprehensive coverage.
Chapter Five: Raising the Ghosts of Empire
See Third Gulf War, The Middle East Under Pax Americana, The U.S. in Iraq, and "Sovereign" Iraq.