Yaqub argues that the 1970s were a pivotal decade for U.S.-Arab relations, whether at the upperlevels of diplomacy, in street-level interactions, or in the realm of the imagination. In those years, Americans and Arabs came to know each other as never before. With Western Europe's imperial legacy fading in the Middle East, American commerce and investment spread throughout the Arab world. The United States strengthened its strategic ties to some Arab states, even as it drew closer to Israel. The rise of international terrorism, the Arab oil embargo, and expanding from the Middle East forced Americans to pay closer attention to the Arab world. -- From the publisher.

The politics of stalemate : the Nixon administration and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1969-1972 -- A stirring at the margins : Arab-American political activism, 1967-1973 -- From Munich to Boulder : domestic anti-terrorism and Arab-American communities, 1972-1973 -- Rumors of war and war : February-October 1973 -- Scuttle diplomacy : Henry Kissinger and the Middle East peace process, 1973-1976 -- Future shock : the speculative mode in American discourse on the Arab world, 1974-1978 -- Fallen cedar : the Lebanese civil war and the United States, 1975-1979 -- Camp David retreat : Jimmy Carter and Arab-Israeli diplomacy, 1977-1979 -- Abdul Enterprises : Arab petrodollars in the United States, 1974-1981 -- The center cannot hold : Americans, Arabs, and the wider Middle East, 1979-1980.