A landmark work from the intellectually auspicious author of orientalism that explores the long-overlooked connections between the western imperial endeavor and the culture that both reflected and reinforced it. "Said is...A landmark work from the intellectually auspicious author of orientalism that explores the long-overlooked connections between the western imperial endeavor and the culture that both reflected and reinforced it. "Said is a brilliant. Scholar, aesthete and political activist."--Washington post book world.