Derek Gregory (Vancouver University of British Columbia)

The Colonial Present

Afghanistan. Palestine. Iraq

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In this powerful and passionate critique of the war on terror in Afghanistan and its extensions into Palestine and Iraq, Derek Gregory traces the long history of British and American involvements in the Middle East and shows how colonial power continues to cast long shadows over our own present.

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Traces the long history of British and American involvements in the Middle East. This work argues that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 activated a series of political and cultural responses that were profoundly colonial in nature. It traces the connections between geopolitics and the lives of ordinary people.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Blackwell Publishers
• Seitenzahl: 400
• Erscheinungstermin: 4. Juni 2004
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 22mm
• Gewicht: 565g
• ISBN-13: 9781577180906
• ISBN-10: 1577180909
• Artikelnr.: 13729141

Autorenporträt

Derek Gregory is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Inhaltsangabe

List of Figures xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvi
1 The Colonial Present 1
Foucault's Laughter 1
The Present Tense 5
2 Architectures of Enmity 17
Imaginative Geographies 17
"Why do they hate us?" 20
September 11 24
3 "The Land where Red Tulips Grew" 30
Great Games 30
Uncivil Wars and Transnational Terrorism 36
The Sorcerer's Apprentices 44
4 "Civilization" and "Barbarism" 47
The Visible and the Invisible 47
Territorialization, Targets, and Technoculture 49
Deadly Messengers 56
Spaces of the Exception 62
Deconstruction 72
5 Barbed Boundaries 76
America's Israel 76
Diaspora, Dispossession, and Disaster 78
Occupation, Coercion, and Colonization 89
Compliant Cartographies 95
Camp David and Goliath 102
6 Defiled Cities 107
Ground Zeros 107
Besieging Cartographies 117
Identities and Oppositions 138
7 The Tyranny of Strangers 144
"Not as conquerors or enemies . . ." 145
Coups and Conflicts 151
Desert Storms and Urban Nightmares 156
8 Boundless War 180
Black September 180
Killing Grounds 197
The Cutting-Room War 214
9 Gravity's Rainbows 248
Connective Dissonance 248
The Colonial Present and Cultures of Travel 256
Pandora's Spaces 258
Notes 263
Guide to Further Reading 352
Index 359

Rezensionen

"This is a great book. 'Gregory has written a book entwiningglobal geography with social danger. The Colonial Presenttakes us through the contemporary wars in Afghanistan, thePalestinian territories and Iraq as connected projects of imperialambition... The Colonial Present is a refreshingly angrybook, with all the geographical and historical scholarship tobuttress its indictment of American, Israeli and British behavioraround the world. It is exquisitely written... This book'sscreaming truths are must-read heresy."
Neil Smith, Los Angeles Times

"An impassioned plea by one of the world's most eminentgeographers to displace the distorted imaginative geographies thathave so corrupted our representations of the Islamic world with ageographical imagination that enlarges and enhances ourunderstandings. The long historical geography of the colonialencounter in the Middle East is here laid bare in all its twisteddetail in order to comprehend the fractures underpinningcontemporary political impasses in Palestine, Afghanistan, andIraq. The Colonial Present is a 'must read' forall those concerned for peace and justice in our time."
David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism

"The originality and profundity of Derek Gregory's TheColonial Present puts it at the top of my list."
Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus ofInternational Law and Practice at Princeton; author most recentlyof The Great Terror War (2003)

"Brilliantly condenses the multiple geographies ofcolonialism ... so that their contemporary entanglements with theflexings of modern imperial power crackle with intensity. UsingSeptember 11 2001 as a political fulcrum, Gregory traces thesearing effects of fluid but durable cartographies of violence inthe intersecting wars in Afghanistan, Palestine, andIraq."
Cindi Katz, Graduate Centre, CityUniversityof New York

"Powerfully and persuasively argued. Passionately written.A daring, brilliant analysis ... Quite simply the mostsignificant book written by a geographer in some time."
Allan Pred, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley

"The Colonial Present marshals concepts ofimaginative geography and insight from the spatialisation ofcultural and social theory developed in the past thirty years... An impassioned but theoretically rich critique of the'war on terror' and the wider Zeitgeist that it shapesand embodies ... Crucially, the book is a compelling critiqueof and American Empire ... This is a significant book ...Vintage Gregory again; enticing and provoking his audience ...There is no doubting that The Colonial Present sets bothstandards and agendas."
Environment and Planning D

"The Colonial Present is an important and politicllyengaged book."
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