Prologue: a passage to glory
Introduction: recovering a pivotal past. Part one. Early America encounters the Middle East
A mortal and mortifying threat
The hostile and ethereal Orient
A crucible of American identity
Illuminating and emancipating the world. Part two. The Middle East and antebellum America
Manifest Middle Eastern destiny
Under American eyes. Part three. The Civil War and Reconstruction
Rebs and Yanks on the Nile
The trumpet that never calls retreat
Resurgence. Part four. The age of imperialism
A region renamed and reordered. Part five. America, the Middle East, and the Great War
Spectators of catastrophe
An American movement is born
Arise, o Arabs, and awake!
The first Middle East peace process
Fantasies revived. Part six. Oil, war, and ascendancy
From Bibles to drill bits
An insoluble conflict evolves
A torch for the Middle East
The Middle East and the man from Missouri. Part seven. In search of Pax Americana
Epilogue: a profound and visceral gratitude
