Adopting the "Other": A Peculiar U.S. Orientalism in the Response to the Circassian War, 1838-1859

Authors

Christopher L. Miller, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

This study seeks to complicate the rather one-dimensional character of so-called "Orientalist" discourse as outlined by Edward Said by examining the way in which periodical literature in the United States during the early nineteenth century looked at a particular set of events in a particular region of the Greater Middle East: the so-called Circassian War in the Caucasus Mountains. There clearly was a variety of U.S. Orientalism that was partially a product of an imperialist project, though only partially. The attention paid to the Circassian War by nineteenth-century U.S. newspapers and magazines provides a unique window for understanding how and why this U.S. Orientalism abandoned the usual strategy of distancing and instead adopted a strategy of bonding with at least one Oriental other.

Comments

Copyright the Author. under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license,

Recommended Citation

Miller, Christopher L. 2011. “Adopting the ‘Other’: A Peculiar U.S. Orientalism in the Response to the Circassian War, 1838-1859.” History Studies 3 (SI): 189–204. https://doi.org/10.9737/hist_417

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

First Page

189

Last Page

204

Publication Title

History Studies

DOI

10.9737/hist_417