Gauri Viswanathan, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University has collected these interviews together and written a preface. Divided into two categories of political and cultural, most of these interviews will not have been widely seen. in the section on political interviews, Said reveals the evolution of his ideas about Israel, his views on Saddam Hussein, The Gulf War, the PLO and question of nationalism, Palestine and Oslo. That some of these interviews are from such publications as, for example, "The Journal of Palestine Studies" or "Ha'aretz Magazine" gives them a unique perspective.

Secular criticism, the origins of his book Orientalism, the works discussed in Culture and Imperialism, the social and moral role of the intellectual, the isolation of musical from literary culture are only a few of the cultural ideas.

Some of these interviews are intensely personal -- almost a footnote to Out of Place. Said admits that in the Arab world he feels he is read as a defender of Islam against the evils of the West -- a kind of caricature; that after the Six Day War, he felt intensely cut off from the Middle East until he had a sabbatical year in Beirut 1972-73 and found himself drawn back for the beginning of many visits.

Power, Politics, and Culture is a book of important nuances, facts, and details not found in other works and because he is extremely articulate these interviews arecoherent, accessible, and a fascinating read.