Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World

In this classic work, now updated, the author of Culture and Imperialism reveals the hidden agendas and distortions of fact that underlie even the most objective coverage of the Islamic world.

From the Iranian hostage crisis through the Gulf War and the bombing of the World Trade Center, the American news media have portrayed Islam as a monolithic entity, synonymous with terrorism and religious hysteria. At the same time, Islamic countries use Islam to justify unrepresentative and often repressive regimes. Combining political commentary with literary criticism, Covering Islam continues Edward Said's lifelong investigation of the ways in which language not only describes but also defines political reality.

Author: Edward W. Said
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 03/11/1997
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.48lbs
Size: 7.94h x 5.16w x 0.71d
ISBN13: 9780679758907
ISBN10: 0679758909
BISAC Categories:
- History | World | General
- History | Middle East | General
- Social Science | Media Studies

About the Author
Edward W. Said was born in 1935 in Jerusalem, raised in Jerusalem and Cairo, and educated in the United States, where he attended Princeton (B.A. 1957) and Harvard (M.A. 1960; Ph.D. 1964). In 1963, he began teaching at Columbia University, where he was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature. He died in 2003 in New York City.

He is the author of twenty-two books which have been translated into 35 languages, including Orientalism (1978); The Question of Palestine (1979); Covering Islam (1980); The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983); Culture and Imperialism (1993); Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine and the Middle East Peace Process (1996); and Out of Place: A Memoir (1999). Besides his academic work, he wrote a twice-monthly column for Al-Hayat and Al-Ahram; was a regular contributor to newspapers in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East; and was the music critic for The Nation.