The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994 [Paperback]

Edward W. Said (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 1995

Ever since the appearance of his groundbreaking The Question of Palestine, Edward Said has been America's most outspoken advocate for Palestinian self-determination. As these collected essays amply prove, he is also our most intelligent and bracingly heretical writer on affairs involving not only Palestinians but also the Arab and Muslim worlds and their tortuous relations with the West.

In The Politics of Dispossession Said traces his people's struggle for statehood through twenty-five years of exile, from the PLO's bloody 1970 exile from Jordan through the debacle of the Gulf War and the ambiguous 1994 peace accord with Israel. As frank as he is about his personal involvement in that struggle, Said is equally unsparing in his demolition of Arab icons and American shibboleths. Stylish, impassioned, and informed by a magisterial knowledge of history and literature, The Politics of Dispossession is a masterly synthesis of scholarship and polemic that has the power to redefine the debate over the Middle East.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this forceful, challenging collection of 37 political essays from the past 25 years, Said, University Professor at Columbia, emphasizes that the Palestinians are a people with their own history, society and right to self-determination. He is highly critical of Yasir Arafat's dominance of the PLO, which he calls undemocratic, corrupt and incompetent. He also forthrightly condemns the political right wing that dominates virtually every Arab government, enforcing repression, censorship and "intellectual thought control." A recurrent theme is the West's longstanding prejudice against the Arabs and Islam, manifested in media coverage of the Persian Gulf War, nonrecognition of Arab literature and racist stereotypes of Arabs. Highlights of this collection include a critique of U.S. policy in the Middle East, an analysis of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and a discussion of Palestinian identity with writer Salman Rushdie. Tracing his own direct involvement in the Palestinian national movement, Said deems the recent Israeli-PLO accord a sellout by Arafat, an instrument of Palestinian surrender that suspends most of the Palestinian people's rights and consigns diaspora Palestinians (those living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) to permanent exile or refugee status.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this volume Columbia professor Said, for some an enfant terrible while for others the most articulate English-language spokesperson for organized Palestinian efforts to achieve political recognition, has collected 37 of his previously published political essays. There will be no disappointments here for readers familiar with the author's work (e.g., Culture and Imperialism, LJ 3/1/93) or for those reading him for the first time. Said deals with the hotly debated concept of a geopolitical Palestine and its people; the Arab world in general, with which he is not always entirely pleased; and the intriguing relationship of the intellectual to politics and the impact of that relationship on events surrounding the "Palestine Question." Recommended for its style and potency as well as for its alternative viewpoint to the mainstream perspective, Said's book should be acquired by academic and larger public libraries.
--Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (May 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679761454
• ISBN-13: 978-0679761457
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somethings You Can't Hear Anywhere Else, July 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994 (Paperback)

Edward Said is a Professor at Columbia University. He is a public voice for the struggle of Palestinian determination which has seemed unviable for so many years. If you know nothing of the Israeli/Palestinian struggle, read this book. Prof. Said was one of the many Palestinians expelled from the area in 1947. He was educated in the U.S. and speaks from an ex-patriate point of view. His involvement in the politics for Palestinian rights is incredible, unmatched, and deserves admiration. His book reveals a side never told in the American media. He has a clear sense of what problems do exist, and provides numerouse examples, parallel scholarly sources (i.e.Chomsky), and facts. Prof. Said has also written several other books about this and other subjects pertaining to Orientalism, Musicology, and Literary Criticism some of which include: "Culture of Imerialism","Orientalism","Covering Islam", and "After the Last Sky".

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Possession, May 23, 2002

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994 (Paperback)

It is remarkable how relevant these essays seem still, even as they lead up to the era of the Oslo process, in the frozen present since 1967, or 1948. Sorting out the myths of the Arab-Israeli conflict can be a full-time job, and that's the problem. Said's witnessing of the issues since 1967 has always been one component of the unfolding tragedy. The Arab-Israeli conflict sometimes seems in a time warp, and the relevance of these essays endures, whatever one's perspective. Said's acerbic commentary seems to hover over the decades, and his personal account, to start the book, is a permanent record of those who endured the juggernaut.

38 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable anthology, March 4, 2001

By 

J. Rabideau (Stuck in the Loser State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994 (Paperback)

Edward Said's writings pertaining to Palestinian and Near Eastern affairs are always well-written, deeply insightful, and immensely compelling. This collection of writings, primarily dealing with the emergence of a Palestinian self-consciousness, was authored of the course of nearly thirty years. Not only does it provide a uniquely valuable historical catalogue of Said's thoughts upon Palestinian issues, it traces well the Palestinian self-view. Edward Said is, to my mind, one of the most truly complete thinkers alive today...his thoughts, be they upon literary criticism, culturalism, politics, or ethnography, scintillate...this collection is no different. For those wanting a, albeit ocassionally caustic, tracing of the Palestinian self-view and world-view of them, this stands as a superior resource.