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Author Brian VanDeMark's vivid narrative includes not onlythe colorful history of AUB and many memorable episodes in a family saga, but also larger and more important themes. In the story of the efforts of these two families to build a great school with alternating audacity, arrogance, generosity, paternalism, and vision, the author clearly sees an allegory for the larger history of the United States in the Middle East.  Before 1945, AUB's history is largely positive. Despite American nationalism and presumptions of Manifest Destiny, Middle Easterners generally viewed the school as an engine of constructive change and the United States as a benign force in the region. But in the post-World War II era, with the rise of America as a world power, AUB found itself buffeted by the strong winds of nationalist frustration, Zionism and anti-Zionism, and-eventually-Islamic extremism. 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By revealing how and why the Blisses and Dodges both succeeded and failed in their attempts to influence the Middle East, VanDeMark shows how America's outreach to the Middle East can be improved and the vital importance of maintaining good relations between Americans and the Arab world in the new century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49598203887889,"sku":"GOR011046822","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51692642697489,"sku":"CIN1616144769G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53007851290897,"sku":"NLS9781616144760","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1616144769.jpg?v=1751023694"},{"product_id":"into-the-quagmire-book-brian-vandemark-9780195065060","title":"Into the Quagmire","description":"During the 1964 election campaign, Lyndon Johnson pledged to limit US involvement in the Vietnam War, and yet within a year America was fully committed to resisting the Vietcong. 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Antiwar protestors wearing bell-bottom jeans and long hair hurled taunts and rocks at another group of young American-National Guardsman sporting gas masks and rifles. At half past noon, violence unfolded at chaotic speed, as guardsmen—many of whom had joined the Guard to escape the draft—opened fire on the students. Two reductive narratives ensued: one, that lethal state violence targeted Americans who spoke their minds; the other, that law enforcement gave troublemakers the comeuppance they deserved. For over fifty years, little middle ground has been found due to incomplete and sometimes contradictory evidence.   Kent State meticulously re-creates the divided cultural landscape of America during the Vietnam War and heightened popular anxieties around the country. On college campuses, teach-ins, sit-down strikes and demonstrations exposed the growing rift between the left and the right. 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