If given the opportunity to name the top ten most important -- yet controversial -- books, Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) would invariably appear on any given list. At its core, Orientalism is a study of, as the title suggests, orientalism. In the book, Said traces the roots of orientalism to the long period of colonialism and imperialism in which Europe dominated areas around the world -- particularly the Middle East and Near East.
At release, Orientalism received mostly positive reviews. The Guardian liked the book a lot, writing "In words that might provide an epigraph to this series, Italo Calvino once said that a classic is a book that has “never finished what it wants to say”. Orientalism is such a book." It also influenced the fields of post-colonial culture studies, literary criticism, and the study of Oriental Europe. Said's book, however, was not without its detractors. Many of its detractors, the most famous being historian Bernard Lewis, called the book "anti-American" and incorrect in a number of very important and meaningful ways.
