It was an American who first described the "Barbary" lands of the Mediterranean basin as "the Middle East"--a region by which America, ever since its own revolutionary foundation, has always measured its power. Historian Jean-Pierre Filiu and artist David B. tell the story of the blockades, broadsides, and betrayals of this foreign affair--a wary co-dependency that, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Eisenhower era, and from gold to oil, has continued to define our modern world.