On the Colonial Present
Gregory, Derek. The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. pp. 392. Paperback.
Written squarely in the tradition of Edward Said’s Orientalism, this book is far more about the postcolonial construction of language to pit the West (or more specifically the US) against enemies in the Islamic World. Gregory’s examination of the “colonial present” (or the “War on Terror”) is less about systems of domination (although this is certainly part of the text) and more about the rhetoric that makes those systems of domination feasible.