American Orientalism

A scholarly and cultural framework, adapted by American academics and institutions, that represents the Middle East and Islam in ways that serve imperial interests. It is distinguished from earlier European Orientalism by its later development (influenced by German scholarship) and its role as an ideological foundation driving contemporary Islamophobia.

Claims that use this term

• American Orientalism is the living root system that drives Islamophobia.
• American Orientalism persists fragmentarily but ideologically coherently
• American Orientalism was a German-influenced latecomer to the field
• American Orientalism recruited many prominent Arab-born scholars
• British, French, then American Orientalism follows the rise and fall of colonial empires
• American Orientalism was shaped by domestic Asian migrants rather than direct colonial administration