It is almost impossible to imagine the United States without making reference to Italy. There is scarcely any aspect of American culture untouched  by Italy—its history, art, architecture, fashion, film, music, the mafia, or even more viscerally its food. Italy occupies a space of near mythical proportion in the American imagination. When many Americans think of, or dream about and imagine, the good life, how and where they would like to live, they think most often of Italy; the beauty, the life-style, the romance, the excitement and sense of adventure that Italy offers. By looking at the fluid and multi-dimensional imaginative interactions Americans have with Italian culture and society, this comprehensive and robust volume offers a new and novel way of exploring the influence of Italy upon the United States. University of New South Wales historian Ian James Bickerton argues that if we wish to understand the United States, and how Americans define themselves and their nation, it is vital to examine how they imagine themselves, and he demonstrates that throughout U.S. history one of the most powerful stimulants shaping the imaginary world of Americans has been Italy. 

Fully updated coming right up to the end of 2021, and now with more on diversity and key themes such as gender and sexuality, this is the ideal book to give students a real, all round and unbiased grasp of not just the contemporary situation between Israel and Palestine, but also it's history. This is an ever-current conflict and one with global ramifications - as such it is of much interest to students and there are many courses which focus on it in history, politics, international relations etc. This is the most up to date and the most 'textbook-like' volume on the market.