Hovsepian’s Edward Said offers an intimate intellectual biography of the influential Palestinian-American scholar (1935–2003), drawing heavily on the author’s friendship with Said, as well as his diaries and correspondence. The author, an associate professor emeritus of political science at Chapman University, traces Said’s evolution as an “oppositional intellectual,” emphasizing his critiques of Orientalism, imperialism, and Western representations of the Arab world, as well as his engagement with Palestinian literary scholarship and overt political activism.
Rashid Khalidi’s foreword underscores Said’s political awakening following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and his efforts to challenge dominant Western narratives about Arabs and Islam.
Chapter 1 positions Said as a contrarian thinker who stood apart from establishment figures such as Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington, whom he accused of aligning scholarship with “imperial power.” Hovsepian also draws on Said’s essays to highlight his commitment to intellectual autonomy and advocacy for the “marginalized.”
Chapter 2 examines Said’s Orientalism (1978) and its enduring legacy in framing portrayals of the “East.” Hovsepian discusses the work’s role in sparking interdisciplinary debates and in establishing the field of postcolonial studies. He also briefly addresses criticisms from scholars, including Arab intellectuals like Sadiq Jalal al-Azm, who argued that Said essentialized “the West” in ways that mirrored the Orientalist tendencies he condemned.
Chapter 3 explores Said’s Culture and Imperialism (1993), detailing his “contrapuntal” readings of Western literature, influenced by Antonio Gramsci and Frantz Fanon, and exploring the relationship between “cultural narratives” and “colonial domination.”
Chapters 4 and 5 focus on Palestine, highlighting Said’s efforts to articulate Palestinian perspectives in works like The Question of Palestine (1979), his proposals for resolutions, and his shifting relationship with the Palestinian Liberation Organization—from initial support to sharp post-1988 critiques of leadership failures, particularly the Oslo Accords, which he famously derided as an “instrument of Palestinian surrender” and a “Palestinian Versailles.” Hovsepian presents Said’s opposition as principled, while noting his growing disillusionment with internal Palestinian dynamics.
Chapter 6 addresses Said’s engagements with Jewish intellectual traditions, his assessments of Zionism, and his reflections on identity, exile, and potential coexistence.
The book’s primary strength lies in its integration of personal anecdotes with close readings of Said’s major texts, making it a valuable account of Said’s impact on cultural criticism and postcolonial theory. The author’s personal ties to Said, however, occasionally limit his analysis. His long-standing connection to Said raises questions about critical distance. The book tends to gloss over more substantive scholarly objections to Said’s work.
For instance, Orientalism has faced enduring criticism for factual inaccuracies and its tendency to portray Western scholarship as uniformly complicit in “imperialism”—claims challenged by scholars such as Lewis, who argued that Said overstated or misrepresented the field’s diversity and achievements. Hovsepian’s limited and defensive treatment of these critiques reflects an overall apologetic purpose rather than a balanced reckoning.
Craig Considine
Department of Sociology
Rice University
