In this chapter I will suggest that whatever his own commitments, Orientalism prefigured, and hence encouraged, some of the central dogmas of postcolonial studies – indeed, the very ones that cannot withstand scrutiny. And despite its very many strengths, its legacy is therefore a dual one – propelling the critique of imperialism into the very heart of the mainstream, on the one hand, and giving strength to intellectual fashions that have undermined the possibility of that very critique, on the other