Description
The Persian Gulf has long been a contested spacean object of imperial ambitions, national antagonisms, and migratory dreams. The roots of these contestations lie in the different ways the Gulf has been defined as a region, both by those who live there and those beyond its shore. Making Space for the Gulf reveals how capitalism, empire-building, geopolitics, and urbanism have each shaped understandings of the region over the last two centuries. Here, the Gulf comes into view as a created space, encompassing dynamic social relations and competing interests.
Arang Keshavarzian writes a new history of the region that places Iran, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula together within global processes. He connects moments more often treated as rupturesthe discovery of oil, the Iranian Revolution, the rise and decline of British empire, the emergence of American powerand crafts a narrative populated by a diverse range of peoplemigrants and ruling families, pearl-divers and star arch
