The Disenchantment of the Orient

"At times provocative and always illuminating, the book provides an important...analysis of the history of "expertise in Arab affairs" in Israel." -- American Journal of Sociology
"Gil Eyal's book will be seminal, if not downright explosive. The argument that something as big as the Palestinian/Israeli conflict was influenced by something as pedestrian as a turf war among knowledge experts is surprising, well-documented, and elegantly argued." -- Aziza Khazzoom, University of California * Los Angeles *
"The Disenchantment of the Orient is at once an innovative study in the sociology of knowledge and an important contribution to understanding Israel and its relations to Arab society. Drawing on the analytic perspectives of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Latour, Gil Eyal develops an original framework for understanding the production of knowledge, its transformation into legitimate expertise, and struggles over its deployment. It should be read not only by those interested in the Middle East but by all those interested in the organization of intellectual fields." -- Craig Calhoun, President, Social Science Research Council, and University Professor * New York University *
"This is a brilliant book that challenges basic assumptions of Orientalism and Orientalists in general, and of studies of Israeli society in particular. Gil Eyal brings together several disciplines typically studied in isolation—history of the Middle East, Jewish history, social history, and sociology—in a way that bridges all these fields and merges them into one intergrated story. This pioneering work is indeed a tour de force." -- Yehouda Shenhav * Tel Aviv University *