Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface : My Special Relationship with Edward Said - why it matters -- Edward Said as Oppositional Intellectual -- Orientalism and its Afterlives -- Imperialism, Culture, and the Colonial Present -- Palestine : Inclusion Without Domination -- Arafat's Man Turns Oppositional (1998-2003) -- "The Last Jewish Intellectual."

"A simple and focused question guides this inquiry. How does Said's humanism inform his politics? Said wrote from the comforts of an elite university in New York City connecting his theoretical or contrapuntal insights to the political controversies of the day. Palestine/Israel and Zionism, the Arab world, the clash of Islam and the West. He went against the grain by offering a counter narrative on these thorny issues. In addition to critiquing and opposing imperialism, Said actively supported liberation movements and opposed power and state strategies to quell resistance to oppression. The Arab and Arab-American context is crucial in explaining Said's political affiliations and actions. First, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war occasions Said's rebirth as a Palestinian. In 1974, he chooses to affiliate publicly with the PLO, in conjunction with Arafat's address to the UN General Assembly. His affiliative choices inform his subsequent writing, including Orientalism, and the two books that flow out it: The Question of Palestine and Covering Islam"-- Provided by publisher.