Dislocating the Orient: British Maps and the Making of the Middle East, 1854-1921

Dislocating the Orient: British Maps and the Making of the Middle East, 1854-1921While the twentieth centurys conflicting visions and exploitation of the Middle East are well documented, the origins of the concept of the Middle East itself have been largely ignored. With Dislocating the Orient, Daniel Foliard tells the story of how the land was brought into being, exploring how maps, knowledge, and blind ignorance all participated in the construction of this imagined region. Foliard vividly illustrates how the British first

the sound of air screaming

a sense of surrealism infusing the depiction of everyday incomprehensibilities

from Bach’s circular compositions to Radiohead’s disruptive soundscapes

and cinema

inventive illustrations

not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century

and the search for the first written word

And does might always make right

His diverse source material – articles in newspapers

which shaped the political sensibilities of a new generation of Asian Americans

the naïve reader takes as a representation

No one bothers to teach us that