Comparative Colonialism in the Middle East

FROM THE EDITOR: The following the first of four requests for bibliographic feedback from graduate students in Northeastern University’s World History program focused on various aspects of imperial/colonial histories. The original posting came with all four bibliographies together, with an additional request for sources that might connect all four lists together. I have separated them out into four distinct postings with the hopes that this will increase both focus and discussion. 

Comparative Colonialism in the Middle East Directed Study, Ryan Branagan

            My project is focused on a comparative study of colonialism and especially settler colonialism in the Middle East and North Africa. I am particularly interested in a comparative study of the settler colonial projects in Algeria and Palestine, possibly including Moroccan settler colonialism in Western Sahara and the Polisario’s connection with other anti-colonial movements. I’d like to analyze the differences in colonial strategies of counterinsurgency, indirect rule, and their institutional legacies in the postcolonial states in the Arab world. Moreover, I’d like to focus on understudied regions such as South Yemen, Oman, Eritrea, Somalia, etc. and explore the insights of theorists and historians less well-known than Stora, Fanon, Said, and others. Any suggestions that diversify my project would be much appreciated.

1.     Colonizing Egypt by Timothy Mitchell

2.     Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan by Joseph Massad

3.     Israel and Settler Society by Lorenzo Veracini

4.     Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century: Projects, Practices, Legaciesedited Susan Pedersen and Caroline Elkins

5.     Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview by Lorenzo Veracini

6.     The Arabs and the Holocaust by Gilbert Achcar

7.     Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said

8.     A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne

9.     The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi

10.  Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 by Benny Morris

11.  The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq by Derek Gregory

12.  Algerian Chronicles by Albert Camus

13.  Out of Africa: Post-Structuralism's Colonial Roots by Pal Ahluwalia

14.  Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965-1976by Abdel Razzaq Takriti

15.  Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied by Toby Dodge

16.  Arabia Without Sultans by Fred Halliday

17.  Britain, Palestine, and Empire: The  Mandate Years edited by Rory Miller

18.  Desiring Arabs by Joseph Massad

19.  The Eritrean Struggle for Independence: Domination, Resistance, Nationalism, 1941-1993 by Ruth Iyob