Thursday, August 16, 2007

Not a Fair Fight   [Noah Pollak]

Matthew Yglesias has posted a delightfully juvenile attack on Martin Kramer in which he says that Kramer "propounds his view that the problem with U.S. Middle East policy is that it's unduly influenced by people who are knowledgeable about the Middle East." Yglesias is presumably referring, in his snide way, to Kramer's book Ivory Towers on Sand, in which Kramer actually argues the the opposite of this claim: that Middle East Studies departments, as they've become enamored of post-colonial academic fads, have failed to cultivate expertise and scholarship relevant to policymakers.

If Yglesias knew anything about Martin's work, he would also understand that Martin's concern for Middle East studies is ultimately a plea for seriousness in the field, and a warning that America is indeed suffering not because, as Yglesias ridiculously claims, there is too much Middle East scholarship, but because what has come to be considered scholarship is actually the same kind of useless postmodern drivel that has long since infected so many other humanities departments. Indeed, the most trenchant criticisms of the field come from people with PhD's and significant academic publication records who have conducted field work rather than just the typical ranting from campuses about subjects in which they are largely ignorant.

Martin is too much of a gentleman to be taken in by Yglesias's intemperate nonsense. He replied, "I don't recall a criticism of my views as crude as this one." If Yglesias does come through on his promise to write more about Kramer, there is a very slight chance that something good will come of it. It may mark the first time that Yglesias will actually have to read something serious about the Middle East.

08/16 12:08 PMShare