The section on “Nationalities” starts with Lennard J. Davis’ fascinating essay on “Nationality, Disability, and Deafness,” in which he convincingly argues for the status of deaf people as a nation or community with nation-like features. He explains his work with disability as influenced by Said’s work and engagement in political activism. Davis recalls his personal encounters with Said as a teacher and scholar, and relates his own engagement in advocacy for the deaf to Said’s influence.

In “Imperial Britain & the American Nation,” Deirdre David revisits the literary production of eighteenth-century Britain to demonstrate the complex relationship and mutual images of British and Americans as represented in the works of British writers of the time. Based on Said’s ideas in Culture and Imperialism, David shows how America evolved from being Britain’s uncivilized and unrefined former colony into a young nation having ties with the mother-nation and which Britain can proudly consider as a daughter.

Marc H. Ellis, in his “Edward Said & the Future of the Jewish People,” presents a thorough discussion of the Jews’ self-perception in history from victims and the chosen people to influential actors in the centers of power and politics. He asks what the future of Jewish identity can be if one considers the inherent tension between these two perceptions. Said is presented as an intellectual challenge to the Jews’ self-ascribed and external essentialism, especially in the case of Jewish intellectuals. His rejection of assigning an unchanging identity (or essence) to Jews or Palestinians in the conflict over land has enabled Said and his supporters to demand and envision a joined future of Israelis and Palestinians, and to criticize essentializing tendencies and their devastating implications in both groups. Ellis argues that for Jews to have a future, they will have to choose ethical propensity over their abuse of power in order to reclaim a positive and righteous image as a people.

The second section, “On Orientalism,” presents three papers on the reception and influence of Said’s book Orientalism. In “Humanizing the Oriental: Edward Said & Western Scholarly Discourse,” Yasmeen Abu-Laban presents three of Said’s most influential works: Orientalism (1978), The Question of Palestine (1979), and Covering Islam (1981). She asserts that these make Said’s ideas come full circle. Orientalism bases its critique of western discourse on the study of Orientalist literature to show the purpose and evaluation of non-western peoples and cultures, and then relates it to the West’s colonial interests. The Question of Palestine takes this task to the particular experience of the Palestinian people, whereas Covering Islam draws the wider circle of Muslim representation to a twentieth-century western audience. Abu-Laban then uses this idea to contest Huntington’s clash of civilizations paradigm.

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