During the 19th and early 20th centuries, American missionary encounters in the Middle East set foundations for later U.S.ûMiddle Eastern relations. Missionaries presented examples of American culture and also interpreted the Middle East for Americans back home. These endeavors prompt larger questions about the consequences of American Christian cultural projection into the wider world.This volume focuses on regions that were once part of the Ottoman Empire in western Asia, the Balkans, and North Africa. Contributors explain the distinctly American dimensions of these missionary encounters, the cultural influences exerted on the region, and their consequences for local nationalism, print culture, education, and more. Dogan and Sharkey provide an excellent resource for specialists in history, Middle East studies, American studies, religious studies, missiology, and anyone interested more broadly in American engagement in the Middle East.Mehmet Ali Dogan is an alumnus of Bilkent University in Ankara and is pursuing his PhD at the University of Utah. He teaches at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of Istanbul Technical University. His recent article "The Missionary Activities of Elias Riggs in Izmir" appeared in the International Journal of Turcologia.Heather J. Sharkey is an associate professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Living with Colonialism: Nationalism and Culture in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and American Evangelicals in Egypt: Missionary Encounters in an Age of Empire. Read Less