Epic Encounters: U.S. Cultural and Media Relations with the Middle East Since 1945

A 2005 book by Melani McAlister analyzing U.S. cultural and media representations of the Middle East from 1947 to the post-9/11 era. The work likely contains structured thematic analysis of film, literature, and political discourse. It is sourced from the paperswithcode platform and is under a closed license.

Use Cases

• Analyze thematic shifts in U.S. media portrayals of the Middle East based on the chapter structure covering 1947-2000s.
• Study the cultural politics of specific events like the Gulf War or the 1979 Iranian Revolution based on the described chapter topics.
• Examine the role of biblical epics and commodity nationalism in shaping public perception based on the described cultural artifacts.
• Investigate the framing of terrorism and Islam in U.S. media during the 1980s based on the chapter 'Iran, Islam, and the Terrorist Threat, 1979-1989'.

Strengths

• Authored by a single, named scholar (Melani McAlister), suggesting a cohesive analytical framework.
• Covers a defined and long temporal scope from 1947 to the post-9/11 period.
• The description lists specific, thematically organized chapters (e.g., on the Gulf War, King Tut, African American cultural politics).

Limitations

• The underlying data structure (e.g., columns, rows) is completely unknown, requiring manual inspection after access.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for computational analysis.
• Last update date is unknown; the core analysis is from 2005, so freshness for contemporary events is unverified.

Provenance

Source

Melani McAlister

Collection Method

Scholarly analysis and compilation, likely from primary and secondary sources.

Time Range

1947 - post-9/11 (early 2000s)

Geography

Middle East, United States