| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East, 1945-2000. By Melani McAlister. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. xvi, 358 pp. Cloth, $50.00, ISBN 0-520-21443-9. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-520-22810-3.)

Melani McAlister's exploration of United States cultural and political encounters with the Middle East since 1945 is indeed epic, providing a wide-ranging and sophisticated analysis of the 'cultural logic' behind America's expansionist foreign policy. Focusing on American representations of the Middle East in novels and movies, discussions of ancient history and religion, and constructions of race, McAlister argues that those cultural texts helped to shape the U.S. debate over its national identity and over its hegemonic role in the world. She situates 'the history of U.S. global power at the heart of the study of U.S. cultures' while giving 'culture a central place in an analysis of the production and reproduction of U.S. power.' . . .

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