Overall, few if any questioned the premise that research on the Middle East (and in area studies in general) should be tailored to meet the needs of the US government. This was the dominant trend until the 1970s. At that point, various factors, particularly the impact of successful national liberation struggles on the field of Middle East studies, led to a flurry of books and articles critical of both Orientalism and modernization theory.

XREF: Connects to the broader critique of area studies as a Cold War instrument, echoing Edward Said's Orientalism and postcolonial scholarship. SEED: Possible angle: how national liberation movements reshaped academic fields — the intellectual fallout of decolonization on Western knowledge production.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 149