Required Readings: (available at the bookstore)

Adeed Dawisha, Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future.  New York: Norton, 2006.

Selected articles, on electronic reserve.

 

Recommended Readings:

Peter Alter, Nationalism. Trans. from the German. London: Edward Arnold, 1989.

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1983.

George Antonius, The Arab Awakening: the Story of the Arab National Movement. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincot, 1939.

William Cleveland, The Making of an Arab Nationalist: Ottomanism and Arabism in the Life and Thought of Sati` al-Husri. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971.

Richard Cottam, Nationalism in Iran. Pittsburgh: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1978.

Ernest Dawn, From Ottomanism to Arabism: Essays on the Origins of Arab Nationalism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973.

Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1983.

James Gelvin, Divided Loyalties: Nationalism and Mass Politics in Syria at the Close of Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Egypt, Islam and the Arabs: The Search for Egyptian Nationhood, 1900-1930. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 1930-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Liah Greenfield, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1992.

Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

David Houson, Geography and National Identity. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.

Elie Kedourie, Nationalism. London: Hutchinson University Library, 1961.

Philip Khoury, Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism: The Politics of Damascus, 1860-1920. London: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Reeva Simon, Iraq between the Two World Wars: The Creation and Implementation of a Nationalist Ideology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Mostafa Vaziri, Iran as Imagined Nation: The Construction of National Identity. New York: Paragon, 1993.

Keith David Watenpaugh, Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism and the Arab Middle Class. Princeton: Princeton University Press ,2006.

 

 

Ataturk's Mausoleum, Ankara

Exams and Papers:

Two take-home essays, one after fourth week and the second after fifth week, will take the place of the midterm exam. There will be a two hour in-class final exam as scheduled for this course. The final is not cumulative, even though there is no harm in retaining what you've learned in the first part of the course. A 15-page paper, based on a historical topic of your choice, approved by Professor Rudi Matthee, is due on May 8. You should have a one-page summary of the proposed topic ready by April 17 to present for approval.
All work must be done on time; no incompletes are given except in cases of major disaster.

 

Grades in the course will be based on the following:

1. Midterm examination      20%
2. Final examination            30%
3. Term paper                      40%
4. Class attendance and
participation            10%

Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s work as your own. It is a form of dishonesty--a form of cheating, in fact—and as such one of the new deadly sins (the old ones have either been forgotten or are so flagrantly violated that no one seems to care anymore) and will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Plagiarism is not limited to using someone else’s exact words; using someone else’s ideas without attribution is also a form of plagiarism. The good news is that plagiarism is easily avoided by clearly citing your sources. If you do, you can safely avoid even the hint of improper usage of someone else’s work.

 

 

Shahyad Monument, Tehran

Lecture Schedule
 
Week One and Two: (Feb. 6-15)

Lecture topic: Introduction to Nationalism: The Origin of an Idea.

Reading:         

Reserve: Zernatto, “Nation, History of a Word.”
Kedourie, “Nationalism and Self-Determination.”
Gellner, “Nationalism and Modernization.”
Gellner, “Nationalism and High Cultures.”
Smith, “Memory and Modernity: Reflections on Ernest Gellner's Theory of Nationalism.”
Smith, “Culture, Community and Territory: the Politics of Ethnicity and Nationalism.”

Week Three: (Feb. 20-22)

Lecture Topic: Nationalism in European History and its Impact on the Middle East

Reading:         

Reserve: Anderson, “Imagined Communities.”
Plamenatz, “Two Types of Nationalism.”
Burke, “Orientalism and World History: Representing Middle Eastern Nationalism and Islamism.” (web)

Week Four: (Feb. 27-March 1)

Lecture Topic: The Roots and Rise of Arab Nationalism

Lecture Topic: The Case of Egypt.

Reading:          Dawisha, Arab Nationalism, pp. 107-185.

Reserve: Baron, “Nationalist Iconography: Egypt as Woman.”

 

Week Six: (March 13-15)

Lecture Topic: The Case of Egypt, cont'd.

Reading:         

Reserve: Smith, “Imagined Identities: Imagined Nationalisms: Print Culture and Egyptian Nationalism.”
Gershoni and Jankowski, “Print Culture and Social Change and the Process of Redefining Imagined Communities in Egypt.”
Smith, “Cultural Constructs and Other Fantasies”
Reid, “Cultural Imperialism and Nationalism: The Struggle to Define and Control the Heritage of Arab Art in Egypt.”

Documentary: The Suez Crisis
                      Nasser: People’s Pharao

Week Seven: (March 20-22)

Lecture Topic: The Case of Iraq.

Reading: Dawisha, Arab Nationalism, pp. 160-251.

Reserve: Kedourie, “The Kingdom of Iraq: A Retrospect.”
Devlin, “The Baath Party: Rise and Metamorphosis.”          
Simon, “The Imposition of Nationalism on a Non-Nation State.”
Baram, “RE-Inventing Nationalism in Ba`thi Iraq 1968-1994.”

Week Eight (April 3-5)

Reading: Reserve: Dawisha, Arab Nationalism, pp. 252-313.

Reserve: Ajami, “The End of Pan-Arabism.”
E. and I. Karsh, “Reflections on Arab Nationalism.”
Gelvin, “Modernity and its Discontents: On the Durability of Nationalism in the Arab Middle East.”

 

Week Nine (April 10-12)

Lecture Topic: The Case of Iran

Reading:  

Reserve: Matthee, “Sympathy and Enmity: Iranian Views of Great Britain and Russia in the Qajar Period.”          
Vaziri, “Problems and Context of National Historiography and the Fabrication of Iranian Identity.”
Ghods, “Iranian Nationalism and Reza Shah.”                     
Chehabi, “Staging the Emperor’s New Clothes: Dress Codes and Nation-Building under Reza Shah.”

 

Week Ten (April 17-19)

Lecture Topic: The Case of Iran, cont'd.

Reading: 

Reserve: Cottam, “Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Iran and Dr Muhammad Musaddiq.”
Ram, “The Immemorial Iranian Nation? School Textbooks and Historical Memory in Post-Revolutionary Iran”
Boroujerdi, “Contesting Nationalist Constructions of Iranian Identity (web)

Documentary: The Shah of Iran

 

Week Eleven (April 24-26)

Lecture topic: The Case of Turkey

Reading:

Reserve: Berkes, “Ziya Gökalp: His Contributions to Turkish Nationalism.”
Lewis, “History Writing and National Revival in Turkey.”
Jung/Piccoli, “The Revival of Pan-Turkism”
Davison, “Ataturk’s Reforms: Back to the Roots.”
Markoff, “Popular Culture, State Ideology and National Identity in Turkey.”