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These constantly-updated links come from sources selected by Martin Kramer.
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Ivory Towers on Sand
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Martin Kramer, Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America.
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Cole cult ignores Ajami
posted Sunday, 2 July 2006
While on the road, I was amazed to read this quote in The Nation, served up by Joshua Landis after Yale's thumbs-down to Juan Cole: "Juan Cole has done something that no other Middle East academic has done since Bernard Lewis, who is 90 years old: He has become a household word. He has educated a nation."
Cole, a household word? Through which mass media? His blog? His Salon.com pieces? His occasional appearances on the NewsHour? Cole's name is a blogosphere word, but it's no household word.
As it happens, there is another Middle East academic, aside from Lewis, who is a household word: Fouad Ajami. It is Ajami--consultant to CBS News, columnist for U.S. News & World Report, frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Foreign Affairs--who's mastered the mainstream media from within academe. Unlike Cole, he can speak Arabic on Al-Jazeera, and unlike Cole, he's been to Iraq--six times--and even written a book about it.
Zombies of the Cole cult seem to be programmed to ignore Ajami for just these reasons. Is Landis one of them?
Cole, a household word? Through which mass media? His blog? His Salon.com pieces? His occasional appearances on the NewsHour? Cole's name is a blogosphere word, but it's no household word.
As it happens, there is another Middle East academic, aside from Lewis, who is a household word: Fouad Ajami. It is Ajami--consultant to CBS News, columnist for U.S. News & World Report, frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Foreign Affairs--who's mastered the mainstream media from within academe. Unlike Cole, he can speak Arabic on Al-Jazeera, and unlike Cole, he's been to Iraq--six times--and even written a book about it.Zombies of the Cole cult seem to be programmed to ignore Ajami for just these reasons. Is Landis one of them?
