Nearest East

Hans-Lukas Kieser is Adjunct Professor (Privatdozent) for Modern History at the University of Zurich. He is editor of Turkey beyond Nationalism, a coeditor (with Dominik J. Schaller) of The Armenian Genocide and the Shoah and the author of Der verpasste Friede (The Squandered Peace).

• Acknowledgments Introduction 1 The United States and the Near East, circa 1800 2 A Quest for "Zion" and Peace on Earth: Mission to the Bible Lands 3 Dream and Trauma: Missionary America and Young Turkey, 1908-1923 4 Oil, Palestine-Israel, and Empire of the Good 5 American Steps and Shortcuts to "Zion" after 1967 Conclusion Notes Selected Bibliography Index

"Nearest East offers a fascinating interpretation of American millenarian and Christian Zionist ideas in the late Ottoman and post-Ottoman Middle East. Kieser considers the role of American Protestant missionaries as mediators of American influence in the region. He demonstrates a powerful command of the histories of the late Ottoman Empire and Turkey, the Armenians, and the United States, as well as the fields of Christian and Islamic studies and biblical studies. Kieser does an excellent job of showing how fluctuating and sometimes inconsistent premillennial and postmillennial Christian ideas affected American missionary policy (and, after World War I, U.S. diplomatic policy) toward Asia Minor and later Palestine and Israel. Likewise, his description of the Armenian situation is particularly vivid and should stimulate important debate." -Heather J. Sharkey, Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of American Evangelicals in Egypt: Missionary Encounters in an Age of Empire