Douglas Little explores the stormy American relationship with the Middle East from World War II through the war in Iraq, focusing particularly on the complex and often inconsistent attitudes and interests that helped put the United States on a collision course with radical Islam early in the new millennium. After documenting the persistence of "orientalist" stereotypes in American popular culture, Little examines oil, Israel, and other aspects of U.S. policy. He concludes that a peculiar blend of arrogance and ignorance has led American officials to overestimate their ability to shape events...

Terror, wars and the deepest mistrust have defined US relations with the Middle East. Why have relations between these two regions been so difficult? What needs to change? This work provides a complete history of the impassioned love-hate relationship betw