Faith Misplaced: The Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations: 1820-2001

“Makdisi is a distinguished historian at Rice University, who's written a fascinating and spirited account of the tragic deterioration in U.S. relations with most of the Arab and Islamic world…If you're still curious about "why they hate us?" this book is a good place to start.”

 

“While Makdisi’s narrative is lopsided – focusing on how ties to Israel undermined US-Arab relations without mentioning how Arab nations themselves have undermined relations – his well-written book offers fresh insight into the American evangelical presence in the Middle East.”

 

“[Makdisi] succeeds in constructing a history that is pointed and deliberate but still represents the larger realities of Arab-American relations over the past two centuries. The book is a welcome and helpful resource for any reader wishing to understand how Arab-American relations have fallen to the nadir they are at now.”

 

“Ussama Makdisi's book tells an important story about a relationship which, in its early years, had tremendous potential based on commonalities and tolerance, but it ultimately soured over time as the spirit of cooperation embodied in the academic institutions established by missions in the Arab world, was replaced with a spirit of domination and dictation from an aspiring superpower to a peoples in the midst of anti-colonialist resistance.”