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Imperfect Strangers: Americans, Arabs, and U.S.-Middle East Relations in the 1970s

Salim Yaqub argues that the 1970s were a pivotal decade in U.S.-Arab relations—a time when each society came to feel profoundly vulnerable to the political, economic, cultural, and physical encroachments of the other. Such perceptions aroused sharp antagonism between the United States and the Arab world. Meanwhile, however, elements of the U.S. intelligentsia grew more respectful of Arab perspectives, and Arab Americans became more visible and accepted. These patterns left a contradictory legacy of estrangement and accommodation that remains with us today.

Date & Time

Monday
Sep. 12, 2016
4:00pm – 5:30pm ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

Salim Yaqub argues that the 1970s were a pivotal decade in U.S.-Arab relations—a time when each society came to feel profoundly vulnerable to the political, economic, cultural, and physical encroachments of the other. Such perceptions aroused sharp antagonism between the United States and the Arab world. Meanwhile, however, elements of the U.S. intelligentsia grew more respectful of Arab perspectives, and Arab Americans became more visible and accepted. These patterns left a contradictory legacy of estrangement and accommodation that remains with us today.

Salim Yaqub is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Director of UCSB’s Center for Cold War Studies and International History. He is the author of Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East (University of North Carolina, 2004) and of several articles and book chapters on U.S. involvement in the Middle East. His second book, Imperfect Strangers: Americans, Arabs, and U.S.-Middle East Relations in the 1970s, was published by Cornell University Press in September 2016.

The seminar is sponsored jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center. It meets weekly during the academic year. See www.nationalhistorycenter.org for the schedule, speakers, topics, and dates as well as webcasts and podcasts. The seminar thanks the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the George Washington University History Department for their support.

Speaker

Salim Yaqub

Former Fellow;
Associate Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
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Hosted By

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

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