Middle Eastern history Books

Book SynopsisConfronting Fascism in Egypt offers an in-depth examination of the response of Egyptian civil society to the global rivalry between liberal democracy and totalitarian fascism as their confrontation accelerated over the course of the 1930s.Trade Review"In Confronting Fascism in Egypt, Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski succeed remarkably in overturning the perception of interwar Egypt that has prevailed for decades in the realm of Western academia . . . No study of interwar Egypt—or of interwar Arab public opinion for that matter, given the central importance of Egypt in that regard—can afford to ignore this landmark book from now on."—Gilbert Achcar, Arab Studies Journal"This impressive work is refreshing in its scope and yet attentive to the rich details of the Egyptian experience. It makes the powerful case that no transfer of Nazi ideology occurred in Egypt in the 1930s and details how Egyptian thinkers, including leaders of the Muslim Brothers, watched, appalled, as Hitler's regime pursued its racist programs. The authors know Egyptian history inside out and their use of Arabic periodical sources is dazzling." —Heather J. Sharkey, University of Pennsylvania"Gershoni and Jankowski refuse to accept simplifications in describing intellectual positions in Egypt of the 1930s. This book proves that an overwhelming majority of opinion leaders in Egypt held on to liberal, anti-fascist principles. The authors document the genuine, creative voices of those who struggled to come to terms with the challenges of the colonial world, and they put into question the conventional image that Arabs were naturally inclined towards totalitarianism. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in gaining a sound picture of political and intellectual trends in the Arab world." —Peter Wien, University of Maryland

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Book SynopsisThis is the first study of the modern history, experience, and ethno-religious identity of the Dönme, the descendants of seventeenth-century Jewish converts to Islam, in Ottoman and Greek Salonica and in Turkish Istanbul.Trade Review"The book is clearly written and provides much data and analysis on the cultural, social, economic, and political life of the Dönme . . . This is a major study of a community that contributed greatly to the growth of Salonika and to the emergence of modern Turkey.""In Baer's hands, the story of the Dönme becomes . . . a rather familiar modern morality play—a story of strangeness annihilated by the pressure of sameness." -- Adam Kirsch"Baer is dealing with an extremely important and sensitive topic. That the followers of Rabbi Shabbattai Tzevi did not really convert, but continued to practice their religion in secret, continues to be a widespread belief in Turkey. This unique book is of great relevance and significance to modern Turkey in understanding the fate of the many communities that were caught in between the transition from empire to nation state in the Middle East." -- Resat Kasaba * University of Washington, editor of Cambridge History of Modern Turkey, Vol. 4 *"At last, an engaging yet non-sensationalized history of the Dönme that places their history in the broader context of the later Ottoman empire and emergent Turkish Republic, showing how this group—so vital to the Empire's many later gains, its transition to a republic, and its 'cosmopolitan' character—ended up largely erased from the historical record." -- K. E. Fleming * author of Greece—a Jewish History *"Marc David Baer vividly describes how this ancient, secret sect of Jews, about which little has been written until now, fit into the Islamic world without being found out." -- Jewish Book World"Part detective novel, part historical account, Baer's illuminating study wades through centuries of myth, an ingenious array of sources (archival, oral, architectural, literary, and epigraphic), across the boundaries of nations, and through the life and death of the Ottoman empire in order to reconstruct the history of a misunderstood group-the descendents of the sect of Shabbatai Tzevi, the seventeenth century false messiah and Jewish-to-Muslim apostate. More than the history of a single ethno-religious group, this vivid book meditates on how modern boundaries (those that divide Muslim from Jew, Greek from Turk, secular from pious, nationalist from traitor) are constructed, maintained, and mythologized." -- Sarah Abrevaya Stein, University of California * Los Angeles *

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Book SynopsisThis is the first study of the modern history, experience, and ethno-religious identity of the Dönme, the descendants of seventeenth-century Jewish converts to Islam, in Ottoman and Greek Salonica and in Turkish Istanbul.Trade Review"The book is clearly written and provides much data and analysis on the cultural, social, economic, and political life of the Dönme . . . This is a major study of a community that contributed greatly to the growth of Salonika and to the emergence of modern Turkey.""In Baer's hands, the story of the Dönme becomes . . . a rather familiar modern morality play—a story of strangeness annihilated by the pressure of sameness." -- Adam Kirsch"Baer is dealing with an extremely important and sensitive topic. That the followers of Rabbi Shabbattai Tzevi did not really convert, but continued to practice their religion in secret, continues to be a widespread belief in Turkey. This unique book is of great relevance and significance to modern Turkey in understanding the fate of the many communities that were caught in between the transition from empire to nation state in the Middle East." -- Resat Kasaba * University of Washington, editor of Cambridge History of Modern Turkey, Vol. 4 *"At last, an engaging yet non-sensationalized history of the Dönme that places their history in the broader context of the later Ottoman empire and emergent Turkish Republic, showing how this group—so vital to the Empire's many later gains, its transition to a republic, and its 'cosmopolitan' character—ended up largely erased from the historical record." -- K. E. Fleming * author of Greece—a Jewish History *"Marc David Baer vividly describes how this ancient, secret sect of Jews, about which little has been written until now, fit into the Islamic world without being found out." -- Jewish Book World"Part detective novel, part historical account, Baer's illuminating study wades through centuries of myth, an ingenious array of sources (archival, oral, architectural, literary, and epigraphic), across the boundaries of nations, and through the life and death of the Ottoman empire in order to reconstruct the history of a misunderstood group-the descendents of the sect of Shabbatai Tzevi, the seventeenth century false messiah and Jewish-to-Muslim apostate. More than the history of a single ethno-religious group, this vivid book meditates on how modern boundaries (those that divide Muslim from Jew, Greek from Turk, secular from pious, nationalist from traitor) are constructed, maintained, and mythologized." -- Sarah Abrevaya Stein, University of California * Los Angeles *

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Book SynopsisOttoman Brothers explores Ottoman collective identity, tracing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews became imperial citizens together in Palestine following the 1908 revolution.Trade Review"Furthermore, reconsidering the inter-communal relations in the context of Palestine, Campos challenges the presumption about the existence of Arab-Jewish conflict in the early twentieth century . . . Campos has a positive view of the process in the immediate aftermath of the 1908 Revolution as a relatively successful civic experiment based on the notions of Ottomanism and shared homeland . . . [Ottoman Brothers has a] valuable contribution to the literature of Second Constitutional Period as they shed light on the very first constitutional experience of the Middle Eastern communities." -- Fikriye Karaman * Journal of Ottoman Studies *"As Western observers currently rush to describe the Arab Spring as an unprecedented experiment in popular participatory politics, Michelle Campos has provided a timely reminder that Middle Easterners are no strangers to the concepts of civic engagement and representative democracy . . . [Ottoman Brothers] should be applauded as a bold attempt to revive an overlooked period of Palestine's history." -- Jacob Norris * Historical Journal *"Ottoman Brothers offers a startling new insight into a globally important case: for a brief period in the not-so-distant past, Palestine was consumed by civic activism and democratic co-existence, and was not necessarily headed toward inevitable conflict. Campos delivers a wonderfully rich contribution to the study of the modern Middle East." -- Charles Kurzman * University of North Carolina *"It is impossible to do justice to the complexity of the author's arguments or to the astonishing material that she has meticulously mined and superbly analyzed. Campos' study complicates and enriches our understanding of the late Ottoman Empire, including Palestine, and as such represents an original and exceedingly readable contribution to the field." -- Najwa al-Qattan * Journal of Palestine Studies *"Rarely does a book's cover capture so well its contents and arguments as does the photograph on Michelle Campos's excellent book Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine. is engaging and clearly written. . . It is an innovative, original study of the late Ottoman Empire (and Palestine) and its confessional and inter-communal nature, which also contributes to a greater understanding of the citizenship discourse and its competing ideologies in multi-ethnic and multi-national settings." -- Abigail Jacobson * Journal of Levantine Studies *"This is an outstanding and path-breaking work. Campos sheds a completely fresh and new light on a crucial era in the evolution of the late Ottoman Empire, problematizing and deconstructing commonly accepted narratives. She shows that the mainstream Muslim, Christian, and Jewish population enthusiastically supported 'Ottomanism.' This extraordinary book will serve as an indispensable reference for anyone interested in the processes of the modern shift from empire to nation and the origins of the Arab Palestinian-Israeli conflict." -- Israel Gershoni * Tel Aviv University *"Ottoman Brothers contains a detailed examination of the closing years of the Ottoman Empire. . . Campos does a fine job of describing the forms of cooperation that developed between the adherents of the different religions." -- Lary Poston * Missiology *"Focusing on Ottoman Palestine in the period surrounding the Revolution of 1908, Campos illustrates how members of a dynamic and vibrant Ottoman nation articulated what could and should bind them together in common purpose. Her Ottoman Palestine is marked by social mobility, ethnic diversity, and communal conflict blended with mutual dependence and local solidarities. Without idealizing, she demonstrates the concrete achievements of Ottoman social and political reform in the final years of the empire. She thus reminds us of the many paths of change that were available at the moment of the British occupation in 1917." -- Donald Quataert, State University of New York * Binghamton University *"This book is a great accomplishment and sheds light on numerous important aspects of Palestine in this last decade of the empire's existence." -- Seth Frantzman * Digest of Middle East Studies *"The study is very well written, combining data from various local and foreign sources with enlightened analysis . . . This is a very important study of a crucial period in the Ottoman Empire and Palestine. Although it focuses on Palestine, it provides broad analysis of basic issues of the time, with implications on current affairs in the 21st century." -- Rachel Simon * Association of Jewish Libraries *

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the intellectual debates and political movements of the religious establishment during the first half of the 20th century.Trade Review"Bein's exemplary scholarship on late Ottoman ulema undoubtedly provides the best account of a class often depicted as monolithic and reactionary. Ottoman Ulema, Turkish Republic not only challenges this essentialist approach by showing that the Ottoman ulema responded to the challenges of modernity in different ways, but also by establishing the fact that the Ottoman ulema played a more significant role in the last decades of the empire than has been commonly assumed. Based on a host of original Ottoman documents from different archives as well as sharp analysis, this study should also serve as a model to emulate for scholars of Ottoman history." -- M. Şükrü Hanioğlu * Princeton University *"By underscoring the impact of political contingencies and the agency of historical figures, Bein's meticulous study complicates our understanding of the debates that swirled around Islam's proper place and authority in Ottoman and Turkish modernity. The book's deft retrieval of the shadow histories of forgotten ulema and their successors is especially compelling." -- David Commins * Dickinson College *"The more difficult task confronting historians of the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic has been to understand the deeper social, cultural, and political effects of the various changes enacted by the new regime. Amit Bein's book represents an important effort in this direction, not least because he has taken up one of the central issues in this transition. . . An important contribution to our understanding of the late Ottoman and early Turkish Republican history." -- Benjamin C. Fortina * American Historical Review *"Bein's nuanced unfolding of opinions, events, and political maneuvers is an effective demonstration of the unexpected twists and turns that marked the political circumstances . . . [T]his book is a timely addition to the historiography of the modern Middle East, providing scholars and students of Ottoman and Turkish history with a worthwhile read." -- Avi Rubin * International Journal of Middle East Studies *"[Ottoman Ulema, Turkish Republic] is the first academic study in English to focus specifically on the ulema of the late Ottoman Empire and the early Republic of Turkey . . . Amit Bein's meticulous study is without doubt an important contribution to the historiography of the late Ottoman Empire and the early Republic that really fills a gap in our knowledge of the period." -- Erik-Jan Zürcher * Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies *"Bein addresses the obviously important, seriously understudied reform of the ulema in the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the early years of the Turkish republic. He demonstrates clearly how the seeds of profound change were sown in the Ottoman era with the participation and support of much of the religious establishment, and provides valuable historical context for those interested in debates about religious life, religious authority, and their relationship to the state and to modern society in Turkey." -- A. Holly Shissler * University of Chicago *"[T]his recent book by Amit Bein is a welcome and a much needed contribution to the literature on the Turkish ulema and to the literature on religion in modern Turkey in general . . . This book conveys a nuanced understanding of who the Turkish ulema were and how they navigated the empire-to-republic transition . . . Bein's study is fine-grained and buttressed by ample archival research. It opens up new vistas on Turkish history and enriches the study of the modern ulema." -- Brett Wilson * American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences *"Ottoman Ulema, Turkish Republic restores religious spokesmen and their supporters to the multiple roles they played in the first half of the 20th century. More importantly, Bein makes it clear that these early debates were responsible for the fault lines that underlie present-day Turkey's religious politics and posturing." -- Madeline C. Zilfi * Middle East Journal *

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Book SynopsisDrawing on the author's firsthand experience of the Iranian Revolution in 1978-1979 and subsequent trips between 2003 and 2008, this book presents a historical and ethnographic study of local-level politics, connections with national-level politics and revolution, and the changing political dynamics in Iran.Trade Review"This refreshingly people-centred account of the Revolution drama in Iran in 1979 uses a new focus to demonstrate and understand how the Revolution happened in one large village in Iran, what preceded it there and how local people fit their own situations into the revolutionary frame . . . Well written [...], this book is a gem in political anthropological writing. No other text about modern Iran provides such clear insights into the relationships among political, economic and cultural factors, between the personal and political, rural and urban dynamics in rapid culture change in Iran."—Erika Friedl, Anthropology of the Middle East"The account she skillfully weaves is one of the more engaging studies of Iranian culture to come out in recent years. The personal details of a young American with a one-year-old child settling in to do research in Aliabad, near Shiraz, is captivating as well as instructive in the best reflexivist manner. Being an American at the time of the Iranian revolution created problems beyond the usual settling-in tropes, but also provided an opportunity to witness the revolution from the group up . . . [I]t is her acute observation and interaction that inform her work. The primary value of Hegland's study is her narration of the Iranian revolution outside Tehran. She provides a detailed account of the local economic and political history in cultural context."—Daniel Martin Varisco, Contemporary Islam"There are a few ethnographic works dealing with politics at a rural level and almost none on the intersection of the revolutionary politics and inner family—kinship dynamics. Mary Hegland's book fills such a gap by offering a close look at how a village becomes engaged and affected by a revolution . . . Written as a clear, lively, and meaningful ethnography, Days of Revolution narrates Hegland's field experiences and demonstrates the dynamics of political engagement at the rural level, interrelations of local influential characters, and the forces and mechanisms connecting local politics to national processes."—Ali-Akbar Mahdi, American Anthropologist"Through numerous interviews and eighteen months of participant observation, Hegland is able to decipher the individual and collective norms, practices, and perceptions related to traditional, kinship-based political competition and conflict that influenced peasants to join or resist the revolution . . . Beyond Iranian history and politics, Days of Revolution will equally appeal to readers with a broader interest in revolutions and social movements . . . Days of Revolution is an impressive work and makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on Iran, revolutions and social movements."—Eric Lob, Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia"In this fascinating study, written with the hindsight of 34 years, Hegland shows that in Iran, no less than in America, the late Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill's adage that 'all politics is local' applies."—Jonathan G. Katz, Middle East Journal"There are a great number of books on the Islamic Revolution, but none have accomplished what Mary Hegland has. This is an exceptional study of modern Iran, offering a detailed account of village life before, during, and after the Islamic Revolution. A brilliant book that deserves to be widely read."—Janet Afary, University of California, Santa Barbara"An important and timely book, Days of Revolution offers rich detail about a part of Iran rarely talked about in popular discourse. With unique insights, this book will no doubt be of interest to anyone thinking about Iran in modern times."—Pardis Mahdavi, Pomona College, author of Passionate Uprisings: Iran's Sexual Revolution"In this time, when Iran's policies continue to vex the leaders of the Western world, Mary Hegland's book provides a distinctive and rare peek behind official propaganda to reveal what life has been like for ordinary citizens in the last four decades under the Revolutionary government."—Robert Canfield, Washington University in St. Louis"[Hegland's] work is particularly interesting to former Peace Corps Volunteers as her insights into the inner workings of village politics are unsurpassed in Iranian studies . . . [Hegland's] conclusions 34 years later are enlightening in terms of how the villagers have adapted to current national trends and updated social relations among its young men and women."—Thomas M. Ricks, KhabarNameh"Recommended."—G. M. Farr, CHOICE"Mary Elaine Hegland is the only American scholar to have conducted fieldwork in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In Days of Revolution she shares her ethnographic account about the transformation of quotidian life in 'Aliabad,' a village neighboring Shiraz, during and after those critical moments. As such, it is a welcome contribution to the growing body of scholarly literature on the revolution . . . [D]ue to the unique insights into the village life during the revolutionary period, and political and historical information, students of contemporary Iran and cultural anthropology would benefit from reading this rare longitudinal ethnographic study."—Navid Fozi, International Journal of Middle East Studies"A rare and intimate account of village life before, during, and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Days of Revolution challenges some of the most frequently publicized assumptions concerning the Revolution; it provides new insight into the ways in which local politics and models, for and of action, can inform national events and reveals the tremendous value of longue durée ethnographic research."—Rose Wellman, American Ethnologist"[Hegland's] study accomplishes what earlier ethnographies could not, through detailing changes in kinship politics, state authority, and social structures over a revolutionary interregnum....In the end, Hegland's political anthropology of an Iranian village is as much about five decades of socioeconomic modernization as it is a witness to rural life under a revolution."—Kevan Harris, Perspectives on Politics

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Book SynopsisDrawing on the author's firsthand experience of the Iranian Revolution in 1978-1979 and subsequent trips between 2003 and 2008, this book presents a historical and ethnographic study of local-level politics, connections with national-level politics and revolution, and the changing political dynamics in Iran.Trade Review"This refreshingly people-centred account of the Revolution drama in Iran in 1979 uses a new focus to demonstrate and understand how the Revolution happened in one large village in Iran, what preceded it there and how local people fit their own situations into the revolutionary frame . . . Well written [...], this book is a gem in political anthropological writing. No other text about modern Iran provides such clear insights into the relationships among political, economic and cultural factors, between the personal and political, rural and urban dynamics in rapid culture change in Iran."—Erika Friedl, Anthropology of the Middle East"The account she skillfully weaves is one of the more engaging studies of Iranian culture to come out in recent years. The personal details of a young American with a one-year-old child settling in to do research in Aliabad, near Shiraz, is captivating as well as instructive in the best reflexivist manner. Being an American at the time of the Iranian revolution created problems beyond the usual settling-in tropes, but also provided an opportunity to witness the revolution from the group up . . . [I]t is her acute observation and interaction that inform her work. The primary value of Hegland's study is her narration of the Iranian revolution outside Tehran. She provides a detailed account of the local economic and political history in cultural context."—Daniel Martin Varisco, Contemporary Islam"There are a few ethnographic works dealing with politics at a rural level and almost none on the intersection of the revolutionary politics and inner family—kinship dynamics. Mary Hegland's book fills such a gap by offering a close look at how a village becomes engaged and affected by a revolution . . . Written as a clear, lively, and meaningful ethnography, Days of Revolution narrates Hegland's field experiences and demonstrates the dynamics of political engagement at the rural level, interrelations of local influential characters, and the forces and mechanisms connecting local politics to national processes."—Ali-Akbar Mahdi, American Anthropologist"Through numerous interviews and eighteen months of participant observation, Hegland is able to decipher the individual and collective norms, practices, and perceptions related to traditional, kinship-based political competition and conflict that influenced peasants to join or resist the revolution . . . Beyond Iranian history and politics, Days of Revolution will equally appeal to readers with a broader interest in revolutions and social movements . . . Days of Revolution is an impressive work and makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on Iran, revolutions and social movements."—Eric Lob, Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia"In this fascinating study, written with the hindsight of 34 years, Hegland shows that in Iran, no less than in America, the late Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill's adage that 'all politics is local' applies."—Jonathan G. Katz, Middle East Journal"There are a great number of books on the Islamic Revolution, but none have accomplished what Mary Hegland has. This is an exceptional study of modern Iran, offering a detailed account of village life before, during, and after the Islamic Revolution. A brilliant book that deserves to be widely read."—Janet Afary, University of California, Santa Barbara"An important and timely book, Days of Revolution offers rich detail about a part of Iran rarely talked about in popular discourse. With unique insights, this book will no doubt be of interest to anyone thinking about Iran in modern times."—Pardis Mahdavi, Pomona College, author of Passionate Uprisings: Iran's Sexual Revolution"In this time, when Iran's policies continue to vex the leaders of the Western world, Mary Hegland's book provides a distinctive and rare peek behind official propaganda to reveal what life has been like for ordinary citizens in the last four decades under the Revolutionary government."—Robert Canfield, Washington University in St. Louis"[Hegland's] work is particularly interesting to former Peace Corps Volunteers as her insights into the inner workings of village politics are unsurpassed in Iranian studies . . . [Hegland's] conclusions 34 years later are enlightening in terms of how the villagers have adapted to current national trends and updated social relations among its young men and women."—Thomas M. Ricks, KhabarNameh"Recommended."—G. M. Farr, CHOICE"Mary Elaine Hegland is the only American scholar to have conducted fieldwork in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In Days of Revolution she shares her ethnographic account about the transformation of quotidian life in 'Aliabad,' a village neighboring Shiraz, during and after those critical moments. As such, it is a welcome contribution to the growing body of scholarly literature on the revolution . . . [D]ue to the unique insights into the village life during the revolutionary period, and political and historical information, students of contemporary Iran and cultural anthropology would benefit from reading this rare longitudinal ethnographic study."—Navid Fozi, International Journal of Middle East Studies"A rare and intimate account of village life before, during, and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Days of Revolution challenges some of the most frequently publicized assumptions concerning the Revolution; it provides new insight into the ways in which local politics and models, for and of action, can inform national events and reveals the tremendous value of longue durée ethnographic research."—Rose Wellman, American Ethnologist"[Hegland's] study accomplishes what earlier ethnographies could not, through detailing changes in kinship politics, state authority, and social structures over a revolutionary interregnum....In the end, Hegland's political anthropology of an Iranian village is as much about five decades of socioeconomic modernization as it is a witness to rural life under a revolution."—Kevan Harris, Perspectives on Politics

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Book SynopsisThis book explores a historical moment in which a Middle Eastern Jewish community not only adopted a new nation, Iraq, but a new ethnicity, Arabism—and its ultimate demise.Trade Review"Altogether, Bashkin's book greatly enhances our understanding of the history of this vibrant and deep-rooted community, which flourished in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society for centuries: its contribution to modern Iraq, its cultural and intellectual achievements, and its global economic and trade exposure and success in Iraq and elsewhere in the diaspora. Her book is honest, well-balanced and well-documented, and she approaches her subject with an open, sympathetic mind." -- Abbas Shiblak"Orit Bashkin's riveting new book is, without doubt, the first attempt at providing a full portrait of the rise and fall of the Baghdadi Jewish community in the course of the eventful 20th Century. The book is based on rich documentation, memoirs, communal, and school records. Bashkin's narrative is a shining example of solid scholarship and, at the same time, a coherent account of the vicissitudes of the modern history of a dynamic Arab-Jewish community the like of which is no more in evidence." -- Sasson Somekh * author of Baghdad, Yesterday (2007) *"This is a major contribution to the study of Iraqi Jews in modern times, shedding light on Jewish involvement in Iraqi intellectual and political life as part of the Iraqi nation until regional politics forced an abrupt breach and the annihilation of the community. The book is recommended for academic libraries with collections on Middle Eastern, Jewish and minorities' studies." -- Rachel Simon * Association of Jewish Libraries *"Bashkin recounts the last chapter in the history of the oldest Jewish Diaspora community in the Arab world, in Baghdad. . . Recommended." -- M. Gershovich * CHOICE *"New Babylonians is a meticulously researched and path-breaking treatment of a topic engaging several interlocking contested histories—Jews of Arab countries, the Arab-Israeli conflict, democracy and post-colonialism, and the Communist Parties of Iraq and Israel." -- Joel Beinin * Middle East Journal *"A profound sense of loss permeates Orit Bashkin's elegantly written chronicle of the last years of the Jewish presence in Iraq, viewed mostly through the writings of Jewish intellectuals in Iraq at the time and later in Israel, and through interviews with them . . . It was only after the creation of Israel that the Jews of Iraq came to realize they could no longer stay in what they long continued to regard as their homeland. Bashkin has told their story with great insight, scholarship, and affection." -- Peter Slugett * American Historical Review *"This remarkable book examines the tragic modern history of the oldest and most deeply rooted Jewish community in the Arab world. Bashkin succeeds in avoiding the many pitfalls which confront an author dealing with such a charged topic by deploying empathy, careful historical analysis and great rigor. This book should be welcomed by all those who seek to free themselves of the blinders imposed by different varieties of extreme nationalism, and as such should be welcomed by scholars everywhere." -- Rashid Khalidi

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Book SynopsisThe decades-long resilience of Middle Eastern regimes meant that few anticipated the 2011 Arab Spring. But from the seemingly rapid leadership turnovers in Tunisia and Egypt to the protracted stalemates in Yemen and Syria, there remains a common outcome: ongoing control of the ruling regimes. While some analysts and media outlets rush to look for democratic breakthroughs, autocratic continuitynot wide-ranging political changeremains the hallmark of the region''s upheaval. Contrasting Egypt and Syria, Joshua Stacher examines how executive power is structured in each country to show how these preexisting power configurations shaped the uprisings and, in turn, the outcomes. Presidential power in Egypt was centralized. Even as Mubarak was forced to relinquish the presidency, military generals from the regime were charged with leading the transition. The course of the Syrian uprising reveals a key difference: the decentralized character of Syrian politics. Only time will tell if ATrade Review"This is a fine work of comparative politics that systematically examines Syrian and Egyptian political histories to expose unexpected differences despite oft-cited commonalities . . . The existing body of work has taken three forms: studies of specific cases, multiauthored edited volumes, or general models of Arab or Middle Eastern authoritarianism based on schematic readings from across the region. Adaptable Autocrats deftly moves beyond these repertoires by simultaneously historicizing these revolutionary moments and revealing their limits through a paired comparison." -- Arang Keshavarzian * Arab Studies Journal Reviews *"Stacher's book makes several key contributions to the literature on Arab and Middle East politics. . . . [I]t will be of great interest to scholars, analysts , policy-makers, and students alike. For those interested in the dynamics of Egypt, Syria, or autocracy in general, it will be essential reading." -- Curtis R. Ryan * Middle East Journal *"'If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.' Joshua Stacher's Adaptable Autocrats opens with this line from Lampedusa's The Leopard and proceeds to illustrate its wisdom, showing how power seeks to preserve itself and therefore how the seemingly inflexible authoritarian regimes of Syria and Egypt bent with the winds of the Arab Spring without breaking." -- Maria Golia * Times Literary Supplement *"Stacher (Kent State Univ.) offers a theoretical explanation for the different developments in Egypt and Syria following the Arab Spring. Stacher argues that Anwar Sadat depoliticized state institutions and Hosni Mubarak followed the trend, but Hafez al-Assad nurtured politicized institutions. The Egyptian centralized elite could remove Mubarak when he became a liability, but the decentralized Syrian elite could not remove Bashar al-Assad. . . Recommended." -- F. L. Mokhtari * Choice *"This is one of the best, most concrete explorations of developments in Egyptian and Syrian politics over the last decade. Stacher provides an original look at the inner workings and dynamics of two vitally important regimes in the Arab world and lays out the implications for the future of the significant differences between these two political systems." -- Samer Shehata * Georgetown University *"Stacher delivers key insights into the paradox of the rapid fall of the strong executive in Egypt's highly centralized state in 2011, while Syria's much more decentralized state hangs on to power. This timely work provides a rare window on elites and their alliances and struggles. It is a must read for those who wish to better understand whether the 'Arab Spring' will lead to the redistribution of political and economic power by limiting executive authority, or merely replace one elite group with another." -- Diane Singerman * American University *"Recommended Reading . . . [T]he value of analysis and insight is very high, rewarding the reader." -- Global Ministries

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Book SynopsisThe decades-long resilience of Middle Eastern regimes meant that few anticipated the 2011 Arab Spring. But from the seemingly rapid leadership turnovers in Tunisia and Egypt to the protracted stalemates in Yemen and Syria, there remains a common outcome: ongoing control of the ruling regimes. While some analysts and media outlets rush to look for democratic breakthroughs, autocratic continuitynot wide-ranging political changeremains the hallmark of the region''s upheaval. Contrasting Egypt and Syria, Joshua Stacher examines how executive power is structured in each country to show how these preexisting power configurations shaped the uprisings and, in turn, the outcomes. Presidential power in Egypt was centralized. Even as Mubarak was forced to relinquish the presidency, military generals from the regime were charged with leading the transition. The course of the Syrian uprising reveals a key difference: the decentralized character of Syrian politics. Only time will tell if ATrade Review"This is a fine work of comparative politics that systematically examines Syrian and Egyptian political histories to expose unexpected differences despite oft-cited commonalities . . . The existing body of work has taken three forms: studies of specific cases, multiauthored edited volumes, or general models of Arab or Middle Eastern authoritarianism based on schematic readings from across the region. Adaptable Autocrats deftly moves beyond these repertoires by simultaneously historicizing these revolutionary moments and revealing their limits through a paired comparison." -- Arang Keshavarzian * Arab Studies Journal Reviews *"Stacher's book makes several key contributions to the literature on Arab and Middle East politics. . . . [I]t will be of great interest to scholars, analysts , policy-makers, and students alike. For those interested in the dynamics of Egypt, Syria, or autocracy in general, it will be essential reading." -- Curtis R. Ryan * Middle East Journal *"'If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.' Joshua Stacher's Adaptable Autocrats opens with this line from Lampedusa's The Leopard and proceeds to illustrate its wisdom, showing how power seeks to preserve itself and therefore how the seemingly inflexible authoritarian regimes of Syria and Egypt bent with the winds of the Arab Spring without breaking." -- Maria Golia * Times Literary Supplement *"Stacher (Kent State Univ.) offers a theoretical explanation for the different developments in Egypt and Syria following the Arab Spring. Stacher argues that Anwar Sadat depoliticized state institutions and Hosni Mubarak followed the trend, but Hafez al-Assad nurtured politicized institutions. The Egyptian centralized elite could remove Mubarak when he became a liability, but the decentralized Syrian elite could not remove Bashar al-Assad. . . Recommended." -- F. L. Mokhtari * Choice *"This is one of the best, most concrete explorations of developments in Egyptian and Syrian politics over the last decade. Stacher provides an original look at the inner workings and dynamics of two vitally important regimes in the Arab world and lays out the implications for the future of the significant differences between these two political systems." -- Samer Shehata * Georgetown University *"Stacher delivers key insights into the paradox of the rapid fall of the strong executive in Egypt's highly centralized state in 2011, while Syria's much more decentralized state hangs on to power. This timely work provides a rare window on elites and their alliances and struggles. It is a must read for those who wish to better understand whether the 'Arab Spring' will lead to the redistribution of political and economic power by limiting executive authority, or merely replace one elite group with another." -- Diane Singerman * American University *"Recommended Reading . . . [T]he value of analysis and insight is very high, rewarding the reader." -- Global Ministries

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Book SynopsisBack Stories looks at the production of U.S. news during the second Intifada, highlighting the unrecognized and unexamined work of Palestinian journalists and its effects on Palestinian society and politics.Trade Review"Bishara brings both anthropological and journalistic experience to her subject, and presents through multiple genres—rich description, reflections on the scholarly literature, photographic analysis, focus groups—a portrait of the ways international journalism and Palestinian society have come to depend on one another not despite, but because of, the manifold tensions between them. The book's thoughtful analysis and critique should appeal to students and scholars of anthropology, critical media studies, and the Middle East, as well as to the journalists whose work it examines."—Gregory Starrett, University of North Carolina at Charlotte"Amahl Bishara breaks new ground in her exploration of Palestinian-Israeli-American dynamics of control, protest, and resistance. Her keen insights into the second intifada help us better understand two critical issues: what is happening on the ground in Palestine and how these events are being reported by the American media."—Rami Khouri

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Book SynopsisThis biography follows the tumultuous story of a Frenchwomen who founded the first school for Muslim girls in colonial Algeria.Trade Review"Rebecca Rogers has written a first-rate biography about Eugénie Allix Luce (1804–1882), a determined French schoolteacher in mid-nineteenth-century Algiers. She has also made a significant contribution to the historiography of primary education, ethnic relations, cultural patrimony, international feminism, and colonial administration, among other inherently gendered issues in the social history of French Algeria." -- James Smith Allen * American Historical Review *"Rogers contributes to a growing body of literature that calls into question the notion that imperialism was a largely masculine enterprise. In fact, Rogers builds on a number of studies that have included Mme. Luce and her school in their analyses of the history of women and empire. Yet, Rogers's book is the first to explore the life of this woman in greater detail, situating her initiatives in the larger histories of international feminism, material culture, and feminine education in both France and empire, and the politics of early colonial Algeria . . . Ultimately the biography of Mme. Luce does more than simply 'add color to the past.' By detailing how one woman and her goals of educating indigenous girls factored into larger ideas about France's civilizing mission, Rogers has shed new light on the significance of gender in the making of early colonial Algeria." -- Margaret Cook Andersen * H-France Review of Books *"Rogers's book is worth reading not only because it recounts a fascinating story about a mostly forgotten woman, but also because of the broader historical and methodological questions it addresses . . . Rogers builds a convincing case for the broader relevance of her study . . . In writing this remarkable book, Rogers has both drawn attention to this gap in our knowledge, and she has begun to fill it." -- Denise Z. Davidson * The Journal of Modern History *"This work is a stunning achievement. It presents a fascinating and important contribution to the history of women, empire, and historical biography." -- Whitney Walton * Purdue University *"The recent scholarship has given attention to Luce's achievements in Algeria but Rogers' tour de force is to use the polyphony of often discordant voices, combined with an impressive detective work on Luce and research on education in Algeria to offer a pictures of Luce as a key player for the schooling of Algerian girls . . . Rogers' book is a masterpiece of historical research and a thoroughly enjoyable scholarly piece to read." -- Charlotte Faucher * History of Education *"In A Frenchwoman's Imperial Story Rebecca Rogers uses the fascinating career of Eugenie Allix Luce to illuminate the opportunities and constraints that presented themselves to women who became active participants in the French Empire. After six years of an unhappy marriage to a French schoolteacher, Eugenie Allix fled to Algeria in 1832, where she eventually remarried Louis Luce, a French soldier and musician, and became a prominent figure, opening a school for Muslim girls aimed at the 'fusion of civilizations.' Rogers uses Eugenie's career to trace the shifting views of the French Empire toward Arab education, which led to her move from book-learning to embroidery in the 1860s. In this innovative biography Rogers also tells us her own story, as she tracks Eugenie Luce across continents, in archives and libraries, and ponders the gaps, meanings, and legacies of Luce's fascinating life." * Pinkney Prize *"Roger offers a fresh perspective on the French civilizing mission and the conquest and pacification of Algeria, highlighting previously neglected gendered dimensions of the colonial encounter and bringing to light the role played by both European and indigenous women and girls in the French political project and colonial Algeria's market economy." -- Joanna Warson * European History Quarterly *"In A Frenchwoman's Imperial Story: Madame Luce in Nineteenth-Century Algeria, Rebecca Rogers, a Professor at the Université Paris Descartes and an expert in the history of the French educational system, lucidly explores Luce's work in the field, bringing a wealth of precise details—everything from what the lessons in the school room were like to prize-giving ceremonies and hygiene inspections." -- Oline Eaton * New Books in Biography *"This book is a thoroughly engaging contribution to the historical literature on nineteenth-century colonial Algeria . . . Rogers writes sensitively about Allix Luce's personal struggles while always remaining alert to her tendency to embroider her own story . . . Drawing on her deep familiarity with education for girls in nineteenth-century France, Rogers efficiently highlights what is 'colonial' about this story . . . It may not prove easy for historians of Algeria to recover women's lives as vivid as that of Madame Luce, but Rogers's pursuit of her subject through the archives should serve as inspiration to other researchers hoping to broaden our understanding of the gendered dynamics of French colony-building." -- Owen White * Nineteenth-Century French Studies *"This book opens up an entire social universe detailing the vicissitudes of indigenous girls' schooling in French Algeria and the shifting politics of colonial education that remained largely concealed until now. Rogers' study stands out due to the originality of its approach, the freshness of its conceptualization, and the elegance and clarity of the prose." -- Julia Clancy-Smith * University of Arizona *"Rebecca Rogers' prizewinning A Frenchwoman's Imperial Story is a lively, intelligent, and evocative study that weaves together issues relating to empire, education, gender, and material culture. It reveals sophisticated uses of visual sources and of the caches of lettres-fleuves and administrative exchanges that Eugénie Luce left in her wake." -- Eric T. Jennings * Paedagogica Historica *"Rogers instead uses the biography of Luce to challenge gender politics in the writing of history, and to explore the limitations of the archive. By specifically drawing attention to the silences in the archive, particularly that surrounding the indigenous girls who attended Luce's school, and counterbalancing this with the material legacy which they left (the embroidered goods, exhibited, for example, at the early universal exhibitions), she offers a reinterpretation of the colonization of Algeria during the nineteenth century—one which elucidates the role that women (European and indigenous) played in the development of Algeria . . . Indeed, her argument for the importance of studying this material culture as a means of demonstrating how 'native women' contributed actively to the social, economic and cultural changes in nineteenth-century Algeria could offer a solution to the silences of the archive and the exclusion of colonized women from official histories." -- Kate Marsh * Women's History Review *"Rogers's exemplary scholarship and nuanced narrative is essential reading for anyone interested in women's contributions to France's mission civilisatrice." -- Patricia M. E. Lorcin * Social History *

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Book SynopsisBefore the 2011 uprisings, the Middle East and North Africa were frequently seen as a uniquely undemocratic region with little civic activism. The first edition of this volume, published at the start of the Arab Spring, challenged these views by revealing a region rich with social and political mobilizations. This fully revised second edition extends the earlier explorations of Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and adds new case studies on the uprisings in Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen.The case studies are inspired by social movement theory, but they also critique and expand the horizons of the theory''s classical concepts of political opportunity structures, collective action frames, mobilization structures, and repertoires of contention based on intensive fieldwork. This strong empirical base allows for a nuanced understanding of contexts, culturally conditioned rationality, the strengths and weaknesses of local networks, and innovation in contentious action toTrade Review"This book is an invaluable source of empirical data on contention and mobilization in the [Middle East and North Africa] region, both at the center and the peripheries, and goes a long way to explain the 'Arab Spring'. Its greatest strengths lie in the nuanced and actor-focused depiction of mobilization and contention dynamics and in challenging conventional knowledge regarding the prevalence of radicalization, the role of Islamist actors, and the teleological drive of contention . . . [F]or everyone trying to understand the ongoing events in the MENA region with the whole range and complexity of its activism, this book is essential reading."—Anna Sunik, Democratization"The second edition of their volume provides new chapters on the situations in Syria, Yemen, and Tunisia, while adding and revising the sections of Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. The editors acknowledge the complexities of the dynamic region while providing empirical analysis that seeks to provide a better understanding of the changes at hand."—Middle East JournalPraise for the first edition:"An altogether welcome addition to both the social movement literature and the growing body of work on contention in the Middle East and North Africa. In the wake of 9/11, scholars rushed to fill the gaping void in scholarly knowledge of all manner of 'Islamacist' movements, but generally without tapping into the rich body of work on contentious politics that had been produced in recent years. And for their part, movement scholars were missing in action when it came to knowledge of events in this crucial region of the world. This exceptional collection has gone a long way towards remedying this problem and bringing these two important literatures into productive dialog with each other."—Doug McAdam, Stanford UniversityPraise for the first edition:"Protest in the Middle East and North Africa is not just a monopoly of Islamists. This volume juxtaposes Islamist activism with movements by workers, intellectuals, feminists, human rights activists, and others that don't get much attention in the West, but which present a fuller picture of political and social upheavals in the region."—Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Book SynopsisBefore the 2011 uprisings, the Middle East and North Africa were frequently seen as a uniquely undemocratic region with little civic activism. The first edition of this volume, published at the start of the Arab Spring, challenged these views by revealing a region rich with social and political mobilizations. This fully revised second edition extends the earlier explorations of Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and adds new case studies on the uprisings in Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen.The case studies are inspired by social movement theory, but they also critique and expand the horizons of the theory''s classical concepts of political opportunity structures, collective action frames, mobilization structures, and repertoires of contention based on intensive fieldwork. This strong empirical base allows for a nuanced understanding of contexts, culturally conditioned rationality, the strengths and weaknesses of local networks, and innovation in contentious action toTrade Review"This book is an invaluable source of empirical data on contention and mobilization in the [Middle East and North Africa] region, both at the center and the peripheries, and goes a long way to explain the 'Arab Spring'. Its greatest strengths lie in the nuanced and actor-focused depiction of mobilization and contention dynamics and in challenging conventional knowledge regarding the prevalence of radicalization, the role of Islamist actors, and the teleological drive of contention . . . [F]or everyone trying to understand the ongoing events in the MENA region with the whole range and complexity of its activism, this book is essential reading."—Anna Sunik, Democratization"The second edition of their volume provides new chapters on the situations in Syria, Yemen, and Tunisia, while adding and revising the sections of Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. The editors acknowledge the complexities of the dynamic region while providing empirical analysis that seeks to provide a better understanding of the changes at hand."—Middle East JournalPraise for the first edition:"An altogether welcome addition to both the social movement literature and the growing body of work on contention in the Middle East and North Africa. In the wake of 9/11, scholars rushed to fill the gaping void in scholarly knowledge of all manner of 'Islamacist' movements, but generally without tapping into the rich body of work on contentious politics that had been produced in recent years. And for their part, movement scholars were missing in action when it came to knowledge of events in this crucial region of the world. This exceptional collection has gone a long way towards remedying this problem and bringing these two important literatures into productive dialog with each other."—Doug McAdam, Stanford UniversityPraise for the first edition:"Protest in the Middle East and North Africa is not just a monopoly of Islamists. This volume juxtaposes Islamist activism with movements by workers, intellectuals, feminists, human rights activists, and others that don't get much attention in the West, but which present a fuller picture of political and social upheavals in the region."—Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Overall, this book is the rarest of breeds, an integrated anthology of experts consistently applying a well-designed analytical framework. From this broad collection of different authors, a number of clear and reasonable conclusions were drawn. The writing is crisp, detailed and informed, and the editing obviously disciplined. Both the analytical framework and its execution reveal unique insights on contemporary conflict in general, and the character of military adaptation in complex irregular contingencies. The utility of this volume to ongoing debates about the future utility of force and the challenge of irregular warfare is evident. It will also be useful for NATO military leaders interested in gaining competitive advantage in future conflicts, and anyone seeking to avoid refighting the last war. Given the breadth of issues raised about contemporary conflict and the enormous value of the complexities of coalition warfare, this book will be valuable for interdisciplinary students, scholars of strategic studies and international students of warfare. Accordingly, it is highly endorsed and enthusiastically recommended for extended examination and follow-on studies."—Frank Hoffman, International Politics Reviews"Military Adaptation in Afghanistan provides an excellent encapsulation of the learning and adaptation that have occurred over the course of that conflict. It will serve as an excellent resource for military practitioners, historians, political scientists, and policy makers alike."—Daniel Marston, Principal, Military and Defense Studies Program, Australian Command and Staff College"In Military Adaptation and the Afghanistan War, contributing editors Theo Farrell, Frans Osinga, and James Russell have very effectively focused a select yet diverse group of expert authors to craft a coherent and timely analysis of tactical, operational, and strategic adaptation in Afghanistan. This is the first and only book that examines the war in Afghanistan through the lens of adaptation across such a range of military organizations. All security practitioners and scholars should indeed read this insightful book because it is exceedingly salient and it highlights the grave consequences of not adapting or adapting too slowly at war."—Colonel Robert Cassidy, author of War, Will, and Warlords

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Book SynopsisSet during the first two decades of Israeli statehood when Palestinians who managed to remain after 1948 lived under a repressive military regime, Citizen Strangers examines how Arabs and Jews navigated the opposing impulses of exclusion and inclusion in a new state forced by new international norms to grant citizenship and suffrage rights to its unwanted native minority.Trade Review"Citizen Strangers is an extremely important, highly scholarly work on the conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians . . . The book is based on exemplary original research involving extensive use of both Hebrew and Arabic archives and newspapers, as well as interviews . . . This is an essential work for scholars (including serious nonspecialists) and policy-makers concerned with Israel/Palestine or broadly with ethnic conflict and colonialism. Summing Up: Essential." -- G. E. Perry * CHOICE *"This well-researched book thus provides essential context for current events in the occupied Palestinian Territories and is required reading for anyone interested in exploring the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." -- Kabir Altaf * Dawn *"Robinson's well-researched and detailed account of Israel's dramatic formation period and the creation of what she calls 'a liberal settler state' is a welcome academic addition to Israeli and Palestinian historiography." -- Joseph Dana * The National *"Shira Robinson brilliantly demonstrates that the treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel is a mirror of Israel itself. Carefully tracing the historical dynamics of the institutions that constructed Palestinian residents as both liberal citizens and colonial subjects, Robinson shows how these institutions also shaped Israeli citizenship, legal order, and society." -- Gershon Shafir, University of California * San Diego *"The paradox that cleaves the title of this exceptional book into two goes to the heart of its revelatory findings: a state that is both liberal and settler-colonial is an oxymoron. Robinson's absorbing, meticulously researched account decisively historicizes Israel's contradictory combination of colonial subordination at home with pretensions to democracy abroad." -- Patrick Wolfe * La Trobe University *"Shira Robinson offers a rich analysis of the politics and laws that shaped Palestinian citizenship in Israel, the complexities of liberalism, and issues of control and domination in settler colonial states to illuminate the historical roots of Israeli politics toward Palestinians today." -- Hassan Jabareen, General Director of Adalah * The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel *"In recent years the concept of settler colonialism has become a fashionable if controversial way of understanding the Palestine-Israel conflict. It draws parallels between the Zionist movement and European settlers in North America, Australia and elsewhere who built their own societies and economies while excluding, dispossessing or eliminating the natives. There are some obvious differences. But Jewish immigrants who were fleeing anti-Semitism were also settlers. Robinson uses that framework to study the Palestinian minority left in Israel after 1948 and the paradox of their being second-class citizens living under a military government, but with democratic rights, and in a Jewish state surrounded by Arab enemies. Superbly researched using archival and a wealth of other sources in Arabic and Hebrew." -- 10 Must-Read Histories Of The Palestine-Israel Conflict by Ian Black, Literary Hub"Shira Robinson has authored a remarkable book. Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel's Liberal Settler Stateprovides a detailed panorama of the many ways in which the Israeli state limited the rights of its Palestinian subjects; it reveals the latter's acts of refusal and resistance; and it provides incredible insights on Israeli perceptions of citizenship and sovereignty.[T]he conceptual and temporal paradigm suggested in this book will inspire many scholars working in the field. Indeed, Citizen Strangers is a great academic achievement that reveals much about the past and helps us understand, with tragic clarity, the realities of the present." -- Orit Bashkin * H-Net Reviews *"Robinson describes techniques of exclusion with a concreteness and detail that is useful and compelling. The book is therefore an important addition to the empirical literature on Israeli treatment of Palestinians, and the theoretical frame leads to further debate about how this treatment is best conceptualized." -- Aziza Khazzoom * American Historical Review *"Robinson's framework succeeds in moving 'beyond the conceptual straitjacket' that tends to trap other studies that examine Zionism purely as a purely settler-colonial movement, precluding any attempts to examine Israel as part of the global history of liberalism. We are encouraged not to view these currents as mutually exclusive; Israeli policies of early statehood encompassed elements of both settler colonialism and liberal democracy." -- Yaël Mizrahi-Arnaud * The Tel Aviv Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisThis book discusses the history of electrification in British-ruled Palestine in the 1920s to show the crucial role that electrification played in assembling a material infrastructure of ethno-national separation in Palestine, long before "political partition plans" had ever been envisioned.Trade Review"Current Flow seeks to provide a historical sociology-based perspective on the interaction between the technical aspects of constructing an electrical power grid with the political and social implications of such an effort. In a book useful for scholars studying ethno-national relations and modernization, Shamir's narrative highlights the unique role electrification plays in transforming social society." -- Middle East Journal"Ronen Shamir's new book is a timely and thoughtful study of the electrification of Palestine in the early twentieth century. Current Flow: The Electrification of Palestine makes use of Actor-Network Theory as a methodology to trace the processes involved in constructing a powerhouse and assembling an electric grid in 1920s Palestine. The book brilliantly shows how electrification 'makes politics' rather than just transmitting it . . . Whether you're interested the history of Palestine or the historical sociology of science, this is a fascinating, inspiring study well worth reading!" -- Carla Nappi * New Books in Science, Technology, and Society *"A tour de force, exciting, and daring, Current Flow reveals how social distinctions reside in and on an electrical grid: enabling (or disabling) social formations, separating public and private, and ranking groups and classes. As a visible material assembly whose currents connect sketches, maps, and legal contracts to lamps, transformers, and current-meters; entrepreneurs, electricians and engineers to lawyers, officials, and customers, the grid becomes an actor rather than simply an assemblage." -- Susan S. Silbey * Massachusetts Institute of Technology *"In this strikingly original book, Ronen Shamir traces the electrification of 1920s Palestine by way of an expanding grid of wires and poles, technicians and officials, texts and images. How was it that the enterprise designed to connect Arabs and Jews in a single, all-Palestine system, ended up energizing those very ethno-national divides, anticipating more thoroughgoing separations to follow? Shamir's ingenious account of the conundrum suggests a specific sort of understanding: technical processes of this kind, he insists, are themselves intrinsically social, historical. They do not merely transmit politics, they make it." -- Jean Comaroff * Harvard University *

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Book SynopsisSet during the first two decades of Israeli statehood when Palestinians who managed to remain after 1948 lived under a repressive military regime, Citizen Strangers examines how Arabs and Jews navigated the opposing impulses of exclusion and inclusion in a new state forced by new international norms to grant citizenship and suffrage rights to its unwanted native minority.Trade Review"Citizen Strangers is an extremely important, highly scholarly work on the conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians . . . The book is based on exemplary original research involving extensive use of both Hebrew and Arabic archives and newspapers, as well as interviews . . . This is an essential work for scholars (including serious nonspecialists) and policy-makers concerned with Israel/Palestine or broadly with ethnic conflict and colonialism. Summing Up: Essential." -- G. E. Perry * CHOICE *"This well-researched book thus provides essential context for current events in the occupied Palestinian Territories and is required reading for anyone interested in exploring the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." -- Kabir Altaf * Dawn *"Robinson's well-researched and detailed account of Israel's dramatic formation period and the creation of what she calls 'a liberal settler state' is a welcome academic addition to Israeli and Palestinian historiography." -- Joseph Dana * The National *"Shira Robinson brilliantly demonstrates that the treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel is a mirror of Israel itself. Carefully tracing the historical dynamics of the institutions that constructed Palestinian residents as both liberal citizens and colonial subjects, Robinson shows how these institutions also shaped Israeli citizenship, legal order, and society." -- Gershon Shafir, University of California * San Diego *"The paradox that cleaves the title of this exceptional book into two goes to the heart of its revelatory findings: a state that is both liberal and settler-colonial is an oxymoron. Robinson's absorbing, meticulously researched account decisively historicizes Israel's contradictory combination of colonial subordination at home with pretensions to democracy abroad." -- Patrick Wolfe * La Trobe University *"Shira Robinson offers a rich analysis of the politics and laws that shaped Palestinian citizenship in Israel, the complexities of liberalism, and issues of control and domination in settler colonial states to illuminate the historical roots of Israeli politics toward Palestinians today." -- Hassan Jabareen, General Director of Adalah * The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel *"In recent years the concept of settler colonialism has become a fashionable if controversial way of understanding the Palestine-Israel conflict. It draws parallels between the Zionist movement and European settlers in North America, Australia and elsewhere who built their own societies and economies while excluding, dispossessing or eliminating the natives. There are some obvious differences. But Jewish immigrants who were fleeing anti-Semitism were also settlers. Robinson uses that framework to study the Palestinian minority left in Israel after 1948 and the paradox of their being second-class citizens living under a military government, but with democratic rights, and in a Jewish state surrounded by Arab enemies. Superbly researched using archival and a wealth of other sources in Arabic and Hebrew." -- 10 Must-Read Histories Of The Palestine-Israel Conflict by Ian Black, Literary Hub"Shira Robinson has authored a remarkable book. Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel's Liberal Settler Stateprovides a detailed panorama of the many ways in which the Israeli state limited the rights of its Palestinian subjects; it reveals the latter's acts of refusal and resistance; and it provides incredible insights on Israeli perceptions of citizenship and sovereignty.[T]he conceptual and temporal paradigm suggested in this book will inspire many scholars working in the field. Indeed, Citizen Strangers is a great academic achievement that reveals much about the past and helps us understand, with tragic clarity, the realities of the present." -- Orit Bashkin * H-Net Reviews *"Robinson describes techniques of exclusion with a concreteness and detail that is useful and compelling. The book is therefore an important addition to the empirical literature on Israeli treatment of Palestinians, and the theoretical frame leads to further debate about how this treatment is best conceptualized." -- Aziza Khazzoom * American Historical Review *"Robinson's framework succeeds in moving 'beyond the conceptual straitjacket' that tends to trap other studies that examine Zionism purely as a purely settler-colonial movement, precluding any attempts to examine Israel as part of the global history of liberalism. We are encouraged not to view these currents as mutually exclusive; Israeli policies of early statehood encompassed elements of both settler colonialism and liberal democracy." -- Yaël Mizrahi-Arnaud * The Tel Aviv Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisIraq was the first postcolonial state recognized as legally sovereign by the League of Nations amid the twentieth-century wave of decolonization movements. It also emerged as an early laboratory of development projects designed by Iraqi intellectuals, British colonial officials, American modernization theorists, and postwar international agencies. Familiar Futures considers how such projectsfrom the country''s creation under British mandate rule in 1920 through the 1958 revolution to the first Ba''th coup in 1963reshaped Iraqi everyday habits, desires, and familial relations in the name of a developed future.Sara Pursley investigates how Western and Iraqi policymakers promoted changes in schooling, land ownership, and family law to better differentiate Iraq''s citizens by class, sex, and age. Peasants were resettled on isolated family farms; rural boys received education limited to training in agricultural skills; girls were required to take home economics courses; andTrade Review"Familiar Futures is an extraordinary book, at once theoretically informed and empirically rich. Sara Pursley offers an original and compelling reading of the relationship between decolonization and modernity in Iraq that considers time, economic development, political sovereignty, psychology, education, and the importance of gender in the articulation of national identity. It is an example of critical history at its best." -- Joan W. Scott * Institute for Advanced Study *"Familiar Futures marks an important examination of the intellectual underpinnings of the development projects shaped by Iraqi nationalists, revolutionaries, and intellectuals. Sara Pursley offers an original reading of modern Iraqi history and a thoughtful meditation on time and selfhood." -- Dina Rizk Khoury * George Washington University *"Addressing the generative tension between modernity as a transformative promise of the future and as a repetition of the same, Familiar Futures explores sovereignty and subject formation in twentieth-century Iraq as inextricably linked to temporality, gender, and sexuality. In this brilliant work of imaginative scholarship and interdisciplinary theorization, Sara Pursley pushes us to rethink the history of the modern Middle East and the postcolonial predicament more broadly." -- Omnia El Shakry, University of California * Davis *"Familiar Futures seems destined to approach the hallmark of intellectual distinction to which so many historians aspire––to say something so interesting and important that it captures the attention of readers who might otherwise have no particular reason to care about the narratives and details so central to our own fields."––Kevin Jones, Arab Studies Journal"Sara Pursley's excellent book is full of insights and in-depth reflections....Familiar Futures will be highly influential as a critique of concepts of modernity in modern Middle Eastern societies." -- Peter Wien * Middle East Journal *"The first pages [of Familiar Futures] set the scene for the main questions of the book: the relationship between revolutionary time and gendered time, the intensified investment in girls' and women's lives, how economic development and the gendered social reform came to trump all other visions of the good life, and how the Iraqi territorial state came to infiltrate the intimate lives of Iraqi subjects and to mold their experience of citizenship. The answers to these questions, Pursley offers, have everything to do with particular modern temporal sensibilities that came to dictate Iraqi citizens' orientation to the future." -- Samera Esmeir * Modern Intellectual History *"Through an expert weaving of social theory and social history, including close readings of works by Iraqi intellectuals written in Arabic, Pursley demonstrates how family and gender reform initiatives served to institutionalize the 'disciplinary and biopolitical power' of the state over its national subjects." -- Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt * International Journal of Middle East Studies *"In a Koselleckian tradition, Pursley not only offers us a tantalizing critique of modernization and modernity, but also challenges us to rethink the boundaries between history, historiography and theory: an opportunity to reflect on the positioning of the history of Iraq within interdisciplinary theories." -- Sara Farhan * Review of Middle East Studies *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Iraqi Futures and the Age of Development chapter abstractThis chapter introduces the central concepts of the book. Modern Iraqi futures were familiar because they were produced through reforms of familial and other intimate practices, imagined to already be somebody else's past or present, and paradoxically reproductive of existing forms of unevenness. They were also disrupted by other imaginaries of the future, which might be familiar because they were drawn from Islamic discursive traditions or were near or close futures that might be realizable because they have some connection to the present. These last discourses stood outside, and sometimes against, the modern political and conjugal imaginary of reproductive futurism, in which the figure of the child embodies the nation's yearned-for but congenitally receding future. The chapter also looks at how Iraq was an overdetermined space for the coming together of three previously distinct conceptions of development in the interwar period: the economic, the national, and the psychobiological. 1Sovereignty, Violence, and the Dual Mandate chapter abstractThis chapter looks at British practices in governing Iraq in the occupation and mandate eras (1914<->32). While British officials often invoked discourses emphasizing the psychological underdevelopment and sexual nondifferentiation of Iraqi subjects, this did not lead to their support for the expansion of modern biopolitical or disciplinary institutions in Iraq. British governance was primarily necropolitical, relying on violent punitive techniques such as hanging, whipping, corvée labor, bombing or burning down villages, and cutting off water and food to rebellious towns. The chapter traces how these practices were implicated in the production of Iraq as a bounded territorial space over which post-Ottoman sovereignty could be asserted and economic development, as the extraction of resources, carried out. The use of corporeal violence in mandate Iraq, while hardly exceptional in the history of the British empire, was shaped by new technologies of rule and explained through emerging narratives of developmental psychology. 2Determining a Self chapter abstractIraqi nationalist elites in the 1920s and 1930s called for the expansion of disciplinary and biopolitical techniques, in opposition to British policy. This chapter explores education and the military as key domains in which these struggles played out, mainly in this period over the bodies and minds of male youth, and engages with the writings of the Arab nationalist and "father of Iraqi education" Sati al-Husri. In contrast to usual scholarly concerns with the (Arabist or Iraqist) content of nationalist narratives prevalent in Iraq's schools and military, the chapter explores these institutions as temporal-spatial regimes that worked to make a sovereign Iraqi future familiar even while temporally deferring it. An emerging Arabist and statist discourse envisioned precocious demands for Iraq's independence as symptoms of backwardness, not progress, and accused those making such demands of being both less modern and less Iraqi than those working toward a deferred sovereignty. 3The Gendering of School Time chapter abstractThis chapter explores how the curriculum and pedagogies implemented in the 1920s were challenged in the 1930s by a new generation of education officials, many of whom were educated in the United States. Influenced by American conceptual vocabularies of pragmatism and adapted education, the new educators criticized the unified school curriculum implemented by al-Husri's ministry, calling for a "differentiated curriculum" governed by the urban-rural difference and the male-female difference. From 1932 to 1958, often in response to the advice of US and global development organizations, the Iraqi school system was increasingly differentiated by sex, with more and more of the school time of female students devoted to mandatory home economics education. The chapter proposes that this peculiarity makes Iraq a productive context for examining pedagogies of domesticity in the late interwar and postwar periods. 4Generational Time and the Marriage Crisis chapter abstractIn the years around World War II, Iraqi officials were increasingly concerned that a crisis was brewing in the form of a generation of educated youth who were taking up leftist ideologies. This chapter explores how generational affiliations produced largely by the expansion of public schooling—often in combination with extended family ties along intragenerational lines, that is, between siblings and cousins—worked to foster political mobilization within the underground but hugely popular Iraqi Communist Party (ICP). The widespread sense of generational crisis was expressed in three more specific crises prominent in public discourse during these years: the crisis of adolescence, the crisis of girls' education, and the marriage crisis. Efforts to intervene in and stabilize the stage of adolescence drew on new, globally circulating psychological theories as well as on specific forms of postwar economic development expertise. Conceptions of modern sexual difference and desire were central to these interventions. 5The Family Farm and the Peculiar Futurist Perspective of Development chapter abstractThe chapter examines efforts to reform rural families on the Dujayla Land Settlement Project, one of the world's first programs attracting the new international organizations founded after 1945 to launch the global "age of development." The idea was to create a class of small "family" farmers by distributing land to some of the landless poor. Yet the isolated family farm model used to design the settlement, which was based on US Cold War modernization and agrarian reform theory, contributed to ecological and social catastrophe. The nuclear family type, while failing to take hold as a widespread social reality in rural Iraq, had significant effects on rural lives. By working as a standardized grid for development operations, this model altered agricultural practices and thus the land, while making certain kinds of "family" relationships legible so that they could be worked on by techniques of governmentality and development. 6Revolutionary Time and Wasted Time chapter abstractAfter the 1958 revolution, state officials and political party leaders stressed the need to combat "stagnation" in the economy and the bodies of laborers. The word used for this condition was jumud, "a frozen state." Many agreed on the need to "suspend" or "to freeze" various kinds of political mobilization in the present. Sexual difference was crucial to both parts of this process: the conquering of economic stagnation or jumud and the enforcement of political stagnation or tajmid. The chapter focuses on a controversy over a communist women's rural literacy project, which critics saw as violating the tacit terms of the alliance between the state and middle-class feminists. The project was not believed to propagate techniques for the policing of families in the name of the child's and the nation's future, but to be a symptom of social promiscuity threatening the political order. 7Law and the Post-Revolutionary Self chapter abstractThis chapter examines the 1959 Personal Status Law, Iraq's first unified national family code under the control of the state. It argues that the law's drive to make marriage more stable, while simultaneously making the conjugal home less permeable to strangers, discloses the use of a reproductive-futurist reasoning to create a properly modern and timeless domestic sphere. The chapter explores responses to the law from communists, Bathists, liberals, and Sunni and Shii ulama'. It considers a Shii juristic critique by the mujtahid Muhammad Bahr al-Ulum, who argued that the law only appeared to promote progressive change, while actually replacing the temporally and spatially dynamic Islamic systems of jurisprudence with legal stasis. This critique suggests a key difference between the modern state's tendency to produce a static space and earlier Islamic understandings of "the state," or al-dawla, as cyclical and thus ever-changing. Epilogue: Postcolonial Heterotemporalitiess chapter abstractThe epilogue explores a famous work by the artist Jawad Salim, Nusb al-Hurriyya, or the Monument to Freedom, which still stands in Baghdad's Liberation Square. The work has usually been read as a linear-historical narrative of the Iraqi nationalist movement and the 1958 revolution it produced. Engaging with a rich tradition of Arabic language art criticism on the monument, the chapter shows how this work also evokes multiple and heterogeneous conceptions of time, often drawn from the Islamic discursive tradition, that can be read as subversive of contemporary developmentalist reasoning. For example, Islamic cyclical imaginaries of time do not work against promises of radical historical change in the monument but on the contrary give such promises more imaginative purchase than they typically achieve in linear modernization narratives, with their tendency to open onto a singular and static future.

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Book SynopsisSayyid Fadl, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, led a unique life-one that spanned much of the nineteenth century and connected India, Arabia, and the Ottoman Empire. For God or Empire tells his story, part biography and part global history, as his life and legacy afford a singular view on historical shifts of power and sovereignty, religion and politics. Wilson Chacko Jacob recasts the genealogy of modern sovereignty through the encounter between Islam and empire-states in the Indian Ocean world. Fadl's travels in worlds seen and unseen made for a life that was both unsettled and unsettling. And through his life at least two forms of sovereignty-God and empire-become apparent in intersecting global contexts of religion and modern state formation. While these changes are typically explained in terms of secularization of the state and the birth of rational modern man, the life and afterlives of Sayyid Fadl-which take us from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Indian Ocean worlds toTrade Review"For God or Empire is a gripping global history of the Indian Ocean world, with striking theoretical implications. Wilson Chacko Jacob both recounts the story of modern state sovereignty and troubles it from the grounds of divine sovereignty that cannot be simply read as political theology. A brilliant critical historical inquiry into the present of state sovereignty, threaded with and opposed by life's other trajectories." -- Samera Esmeir * University of California, Berkeley *"Wilson Chacko Jacob joins the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds within a hitherto hidden global history to explore the making and movement of ideas. A forceful intellectual intervention in the way we understand sovereignty." -- Faisal Devji * University of Oxford *"[A] robust biographical rendering which also paints an inverted picture of the modern political subject....For God or Empire is a refreshing and vital theoretical intervention in the study of the Indian Ocean and for intellectual history more broadly." -- Taushif Kara * H-Diplo *"For God or Empire is at once an impressively scholarly, highly imaginative, and hugely challenging book....this is a very fine analysis, presenting an in-depth account of a remarkable man living through a turbulent historical era." -- Pnina Werbner * Pacific Affairs *

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Book SynopsisThis book reveals and analyzes the ways in which highly contested, deeply divided urban space can generate opportunities for negotiation and new alliances over freedoms and rights.Trade Review"Analyzing new splits and alliances in Turkish socio-political, Berna Turam's inspiring book provides insights on power, resistance, and ideology, as well as their interactions in everyday life. A very timely book."—Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University, author of Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey"This exciting book tells the story of how cities can encourage an ethos of democracy and solidarity, enabling divided residents to resist authoritarian states and their ideological dogma. Drawing on the life-worlds of Turkish citizens in Istanbul and Turkish residents in Berlin, Gaining Freedoms represents one of the best treatments of the spatiality of politics in the context of the Middle East."—Asef Bayat, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, author of Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East"In Gaining Freedoms, Berna Turam brilliantly illuminates the spatiality of freedom and the manifold links between space and democracy in Istanbul and Berlin. She provides an invaluable service to the interdisciplinary and politically urgent task of thinking through claims for the right to space wherever they occur."—Tim Cresswell, Northeastern University" ... this is a valuable book both for its rich ethnographic approach and for presenting an alternative, microlevel perspective to think about what democratization entails and how it can progress."'—Paul Kubicek, American Journal of SociologyTable of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: The City and the Government chapter abstractThe introduction sets up the urban puzzle that motivates this book. It discusses the two major urban protests that defined contemporary Turkish politics: the Republican Marches in 2007 and the Taksim-Gezi Protests in 2013. Against the backdrop of literature on polarization between Islamists and the secularists, the research reveals deep fault lines among the secular residents over the accommodation of the Muslim ways of life. It analyzes the rise of new and often unconventional alliances, and the formation of spontaneous bonds that crosscut the previously taken-for-granted fault lines between the devout and secularist residents. 1Between State Spaces and Autonomous Places chapter abstractAfter discussing the nation-building period and its impact on urban space, particularly Istanbul, Chapter 1 presents the historical background of the interaction between Istanbul metropolitan and the Turkish state. Selectively engaging debates and existing theories on how state authority and autonomy of urban space encounter each other, Chapter 1 points to the disproportional use of force and encroachment of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) on urban life in major cities, particularly Istanbul. Highlighting AKP's highly contested encroachment on Istanbul's historic sites, the chapter links urban and political studies–two fields that conventionally talk past each other. It questions earlier literature that privileged socio-economic approaches at the cost of the political. Part 1: On Neighborhood Politics chapter abstractThe main goal of Part 1 is to explore how Teşvikiye, an upscale downtown Istanbul neighborhood, has increasingly become an attraction for outsiders and newcomers, while many of its affluent longtime residents left for the expensive gated communities on the outskirts of Istanbul. The ethnography illustrates the ways in which this spatial shift facilitated the inclusion of the pious visitors and the newcomer residents who did not mind the daily contact and cohabitation with masses of "pious strangers." 2A Neighborhood Divided by Lifestyle chapter abstractAfter a brief introduction of the neighborhood as a political site of contestation, Chapter 2 illustrates and analyzes the street-level confrontation in the neighborhood. The ethnography delineates the fault lines by identifying the major issues and conflicts in Teşvikiye. 3Affinities in the Zones of Freedom chapter abstractChapter 3 reveals the emergence of political cooperation and alliance out of these contested neighborly sites. It analyzes how the inclusive residents have become "committed participants" in the street-level contestations. The chapter argues that by dissociating both from the pious visitors and from the secularist old-timer residents, these predominantly middle class newcomers form a free zone of negotiation and compromise. By doing so, they contribute to the development of democratic and civil practices in the neighborhood and beyond. The chapter differentiates the politics of the newcomers from the urban or radical democracy because the local players in Teşvikiye, who propel democratization, are neither activists nor volunteers in any grassroots mobilization. Nor do they participate in local governance. To the contrary, the politics of these new inhabitants is in their presence and the way they live, utilize, and often unintentionally transform the urban space according to their lifestyle. Part 2: On Campus Politics chapter abstractThe short introduction to Part 2 releals the university campus as a contested political site. 4Fault Lines on Campus chapter abstractChapter 4 illustrates the political divides among and between faculty, students, and high-level administration in the University of Freedom (henceforth UF), the most liberal campus in Istanbul. First, the chapter overviews the socio-political transformation of the UF campus over the last two decades. It then documents how in the wake of the infamous presidential crisis in 2007 in Turkey, the UF campus went through its own local presidential crisis. 5New Coalitions in Safe Zones chapter abstractChapter 5 analyzes how the campus, unlike the parliament, accommodates vocal dissent and thereby generates a strong and vocal solidarity against the violation of freedom, privacy, and minority rights. By illustrating the chain events and deepening fault lines over these issues since 2008, the chapter shows that what is being negotiated at the UF is not Islamism versus secularism but individual freedoms, civil liberties, and rights. The UF campus regenerates prompt alliances against freedom violations, such as unsubstantiated detention of academics and students, regardless of whether liberties were suffocated by religious or secularist authoritarianism. The chapter ends by situating the UF politics into the recent nation-wide campus riots against the AKP. Part 3: On "Ethnic" Neighborhood chapter abstractPart 3 analyzes the politics of space in an ethnically concentrated neighborhood, the so-called Turkish neighborhood Kreuzberg in Berlin, at a time when Islamophobia and exclusion and discrimination against Muslim immigrants peaked in Europe. 6Kreuzberg's Divided Diaspora chapter abstractBy revealing the deep splits in the "ethnic neighborhood," Chapter 6 traces the ways in which the divisive political issues of immigrant-sending Turkey and immigrant-receiving Germany collide and entangle in the diasporic space. In analyzing the urban divides and contestation, this chapter shifts the focus from predominant debates of integration to the primacy of the meeting points of conflicts from home- and host land. The ethnography on Kreuzberg with its largest Turkish diaspora makes it possible to engage in debates on broader issues of Muslims in Europe. 7Emerging Solidarities in Immigrant Zones chapter abstractChapter 7 analyzes the ways in which an ethnic neighborhood generates new affinities and shared lifestyles between immigrant and native residents. It argues that instead of undermining integration because of residential segregation, Kreuzberg nourishes a new urbanism. Rather than occasioning mixed networks, however, this urbanism leads to mutual accommodation between previously excluded or marginalized groups in Germany—the Turkish immigrants, the LGBT, and the former anarchists of the Autonomous Movement. Concretely, these former "outcasts" with current alternative lifestyles share an aversion towards: a) the exclusive forms of German nationalism (epitomized by the Leitkultur), and b) the discriminating attitudes and policies against LGBT and other minorities. As a result of these shared feelings, the Kreuzbergers developed a deep sense of belonging to their neighborhood. Conclusion: Unified Opposition to the Divided Supremacy of the AKP chapter abstractThe concluding chapter studies the power of splits that is generated by new alliances and rises above old ideological divides. After a brief discussion of the Gezi protests and their aftermath, it maintains that democratic contestation in the city succeeds as long as the splits and alliances continue where they were born. The second part of the conclusion points to the recent rivalries, disagreement, and distrust that divide pious Muslims, which are comparable to the divides among the secularists analyzed in the book. Of great importance are the splits among the pious Muslim elite across various branches of the state, such as the parliament and the police. Paradoxically, the political distrust that divides the residents within the presumably homogenous Muslim and secular camps helps democratic institutions flourish as it gives people an incentive to rely more on political institutions than on their own community.

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Book SynopsisCollective memory transforms historical events into political myths. In this book, Tamir Sorek considers the development of collective memory and national commemoration among the Palestinian citizens of Israel. He charts the popular politicization of four key eventsthe Nakba, the 1956 Kafr Qasim Massacre, the 1976 Land Day, and the October 2000 killing of twelve Palestinian citizens in Israeland investigates a range of commemorative sites, including memorial rallies, monuments, poetry, the education system, political summer camps, and individual historical remembrance. These sites have become battlefields between diverse social forces and actorsincluding Arab political parties, the Israeli government and security services, local authorities, grassroots organizations, journalists, and artistsover representations of the past.Palestinian commemorations are uniquely tied to Palestinian encounters with the Israeli state apparatus, with Jewish Israeli citizens of Israel, and by theTrade Review"A pioneering, intriguing, and thought-provoking study of acts of commemoration among the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel. This book is a must-read for those interested in the distressing struggle of indigenous minorities to protect their identity in the face of nationalizing policies of ethnic states."—Amal Jamal, Tel Aviv University"Palestinian Commemoration in Israel is an evocative study and nuanced analysis of the development of commemorative culture among the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Tamir Sorek probes the challenges and tensions faced by this significant minority within Israeli society, caught in the web of the continuing Middle Eastern conflict. A must read for anyone interested in understanding Israeli society in its totality and the cultural dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."—Yael Zerubavel, Rutgers University, Author of Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition"Based on fifteen years of solid ethnographic fieldwork including participant observation, interviews, and surveys, this book focuses on the struggle of the indigenous Palestinian minority in Israel to preserve their identity through commemoration and manifestations of collective memory. In his compelling analysis, Sorek joins many others, such as Amal Jamal, Nadim Rouhana, and As'ad Ghanem, in making an important contribution to the literature on Palestinian citizens of Israel."—Yara Hawari, Journal of Palestine Studies "Based on fifteen years of solid ethnographic fieldwork... this book focuses on the struggle of the indigenous Palestinian minority in Israel to preserve theiridentity through commemoration and manifestations of collective memory. In his compelling analysis, Sorek joins many others... in making an important contribution to the literature on Palestinian citizens of Israel."—Yara Hawari, Journal of Palestine Studies"Palestinian Commemoration in Israel is a thoughtful publication on memory studies that illuminates the precarious search for identity and solidarity in the case of a "trapped minority" in Israel: the Palestinian-Israeli citizens....[T]his is a book that should be valuable reading for courses on Middle Eastern studies and collective memory. I recommend this book to readers in sociology, history, cultural studies, anthropology, and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, as well as Israeli studies."—Akiko Hashimoto, American Journal of Sociology"The reader is left with a vivid and rich understanding of what Sorek promises in the introduction, namely a case for proclaiming Palestinian citizens of Israel as the extreme case of both a "trapped' minority and a colonized people"....Palestinian Commemoration in Israel is an important read for scholars and students interested in the construction of collective memory by a people within and against a state."—Randa B. Serhan, Contemporary SociologyTable of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThe chapter demonstrates the centrality of commemoration as a form of political protest among Palestinian citizens, as well as the historical link between this commemoration and the adoption of Israeli citizenship as part of their identity. It argues that Palestinian commemoration in Israel is both a stage for displaying Palestinian national pride and a mobilizing vehicle for struggle over civil equality, and its content is shaped to a large extent by the tension between these two goals. The chapter contextualizes the study in the relevant literature on collective memory and explains the unique case of the Palestinians citizens of Israel compared with other "trapped" minorities. Finally, the chapter outlines the methodology used in the book. 1Commemoration under British Rule chapter abstractThe chapter explores how political calendars and shared martyrology provided important markers of identity and symbolic tools for political mobilization in Mandate Palestine. The dates on the emerging Palestinian calendar grew out of the politicization and nationalization of traditional holy days, as well as the commemoration of politically significant events of the period, including those involving local Palestinian martyrs. Commemorative events were especially important for the advancement of Palestinian particularism, which could not rely on a distinct language and culture or a common religion. Although the Palestinian elite was well aware of the importance of these markers to identity formation, its ability to nurture them was limited by institutional weakness, lack of political sovereignty, and British antagonism to this commemoration. 2The Kafr Qasim Massacre and Land Day chapter abstractThe Kafr Qasim massacre in 1956 was only one out of several massacres committed against Palestinians in the same historical period. The selection of the event into the political calendar of the Palestinians in Israel and the endurance of its commemoration are related to the status of the victims and commemorators as Israeli citizens. The commemoration of the massacre has been influenced by the need to prevent its reoccurrence and therefore the emphasis on civil rights has been a central discursive tool. From 1976, Land Day was added as a second anchor on the political calendar. Land Day commemoration has been shaped by the tension between Palestinian nationalism and a struggle for civic equality. Until the 1990s, the Israeli Communist Party has dominated the commemoration of both events, and accordingly, the status of Jewish citizens as speakers, chorographers, and potential audience had been salient. 3The Political Calendar in the Twenty-First Century chapter abstractThe twenty-first century has witnessed the addition of two dates to the political calendar of the Palestinians in Israel—a memorial day for the Nakba and al-Aqsa Day, commemorating the events of October 2000 during which Israeli police killed thirteen Palestinians inside Israel. Both events have become a sphere of contention not only between Palestinian citizens and the state but also between religious and secular forces within Palestinian society, which even commemorate the Nakba in different days. The October 2000 events have pushed Palestinians in Israel to reconsider the meaning of citizenship, not necessarily to withdraw from a shared Israeli public sphere, and this complicated approach is reflected in all the four major commemorations on the political calendar. 4Memorials for Martyrs, I (1976-1983) chapter abstractMemorial monuments have been added to commemorative repertoire of Palestinians in Israel since 1976. This chapter begins by explaining the delay in their appearance. In the first wave of commemoration (1976-1983), six monuments were built, which reflected the high level of caution practiced by their creators. The caution was expressed by locating some of these monuments in cemeteries rather than in central visible sites, by inscribing sanitized text on the monuments that did not identify a perpetrator, by including Jewish citizens as creators or commemorated subjects, by avoiding explicit contextualization of the commemoration in the broader Palestinian national narrative, and by emphasiziing loyalties that were considered less political such as local, religious, and communal identities. 5Memorial Monuments for Martyrs, II (1998-2013) chapter abstractA second wave of monuments began slowly in 1998, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Nakba, and it drastically increased following October 2000. The monuments in this wave reflected a limited decline in caution and self-censorship, expressed not only by the number of monuments, but also by their location in highly visible sites. In addition, there was a mildly growing tendency to frame local pride as an aspect of national pride, and a decline in the attempts to use localism as a protective measure from the state's antagonism to Palestinian national identity. This trend was expressed unevenly across different localities, and old prudent tactics were still evident, especially around monuments referring to 1948. In addition, Palestinians who were not citizens were mostly excluded from the monuments. 6On the Margins of Commemoration chapter abstractBeyond the canonic events on the political calendar, the historical remembrance of Palestinians in Israel includes many other dates and events situated in various degrees of distance from the core of the cannon. Some events have been commemorated mainly locally, without continuous cross-regional participation; others mostly by a specific party or movement; still other commemorations have been limited to press coverage, and the memory was not embodied by mass rallies; or the embodied commemoration in the form of mass rallies did not last more than a decade. There are three major dimensions of marginalization. First, temporal – teaching pre-1948 Palestinian history is an intellectual project with marginal public resonance so far; second, thematic, Palestinians in Israel have remained at a safe distance from the armed struggle, especially if it targeted civilians; third, geo-political, Palestinians who are not citizens of Israel have been extremely marginal in the public commemoration. 7Disciplining Palestinian Memory chapter abstractThe anxiety of the Jewish public in Israel regarding the public appearance of a Palestinian national narrative has led to continuous attempts to discipline the public display of Palestinian political memory. In the rst decades after 1948 this discipline was imposed mainly by strict monitoring by the security services. As the Jews' siege mentality abated and Arab self-condence and organizational ability increased in the 1980s and 1990s, elements of the Palestinian national narrative gained more public visibility. From 2000, the Second Intifada reversed the abating anxiety, but it was too late to restore the old modes of disciplining memory. In the new era, disciplining memory is based on a combination of restrictive legislation, public intimidations by government ofcials, and the watchful civic gaze of ordinary citizens. These modes are not completely ineffective but they are far from pushing national historical remembrance back to the private sphere. 8The Struggle over the Next Generation chapter abstractThe official curriculum in Israeli schools has long excluded the Palestinian national narrative. The chapter presents evidence that although Palestinians in Israel do not tend to see the formal education system as a main source of their historical knowledge, this system is still influential in shaping historical remembrance. Given the uniqueness of public education as an extremely imbalanced political battlefield, activists, educators, and parents developed diverse tools aimed to bypass, alter, or confront the curriculum of the formal education system. The chapter discusses some of these tools, including increasing the role of private schools, developing alternative teaching materials, and disseminating these materials either inside the public education system or thorough extracurricular activities. 9Political Summer Camps chapter abstractSummer camps became an important element in the alternative education system of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, and a space for processing national memory and transmitting it to children. All major parties and movements organize summer camps, in which the development of collective memory has a central place. Themes banned at school are openly discussed in an environment considered relatively safe. At the same time Israeli state agencies, through trial and error tactics, check the limits of their ability to monitor and discipline the curriculum of these camps. Summer camps, however, are not equivalent to a mandatory education system. The ability of Palestinian agents of memory to inculcate their own version of history to the next generation is limited as they lack the coercive power of a central government that can impose universal "required knowledge." 10The Quest for Victory chapter abstractThe chapter examines the semiotic structure of Palestinian collective memory in Israel and identifies a continuous tendency to balance themes of victimhood with themes of prowess. Modern Palestinian and Arab histories make themes of victimhood significantly more available and the frequent attempts to construct various events as victories is a common thread that links the "literature of resistance" under the military regime, with the widespread satisfaction from the Israeli failure in Lebanon in 2006. The attraction to triumphal themes is even more evident among those Arab citizens who define themselves as both Palestinians and Israelis, probably because Israeli defeats at the hands of Arabs pave the way for imagining a more egalitarian interaction with Jews. 11Latent Nostalgia to Yitzhak Rabin chapter abstractAs one of the major figures responsible for the Nakba, the way the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is remembered by Palestinian citizens of Israel after his assassination in 1995 is a very good example for a strategic suspension of the Nakba memory. The chapter suggests the existence of a latent nostalgia for Rabin's second term as prime minister (1992–1995) as a period when being Israeli looked like a realistic option for Palestinian citizens of Israel. This nostalgia is "latent" because in the post-2000 era it can be found only in responses of individuals to a survey questionnaire, but not in the public sphere. Conclusion chapter abstractThe chapter identifies the tension between being Palestinian and being an Israeli citizen as a major force that shapes Palestinian commemoration in Israel. While some other axes of conflict (integration-separation; local-national; elite-masses; intra-Palestinian communal relations) are not simple derivative of this tension, they are commonly related to it in one way or another. Together, these tensions create frequent discrepancies between various forms and spheres of historical remembrance and commemoration, as well as internal inconsistencies in the commemorative rhetoric.

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Book SynopsisEgypt came to govern Gaza as a result of a war, a failed effort to maintain Arab Palestine. Throughout the twenty years of its administration (19481967), Egyptian policing of Gaza concerned itself not only with crime and politics, but also with control of social and moral order. Through surveillance, interrogation, and a network of local informants, the police extended their reach across the public domain and into private life, seeing Palestinians as both security threats and vulnerable subjects who needed protection. Security practices produced suspicion and safety simultaneously.Police Encounters explores the paradox of Egyptian rule. Drawing on a rich and detailed archive of daily police records, the book describes an extensive security apparatus guided by intersecting concerns about national interest, social propriety, and everyday illegality. In pursuit of security, Egyptian policing established a relatively safe society, but also one that blocked independent poliTrade Review"Ilana Feldman demonstrates how policing is not simply the repression of crime, but the cultivation of a security society. Gaza stands as an exceptional case—but one exceptionally important to illuminate the pre-history of the policing and security conflicts that drove many of the Arab Spring revolutions. Exciting, lucid, profound, and sophisticated, Police Encounters is a must-read." -- Paul Amar * University of California, Santa Barbara, author of The Security Archipelago *"Beautifully weaving stories, histories and theory, Ilana Feldman illuminates the history of policing in Gaza under Egyptian rule. A remarkable work that opens new avenues of research and provides new ways of thinking about coercion and rule." -- Laleh Khalili * University of London, SOAS *"Police Encountersis an invaluable contribution to studies of security regimes and the role of surveillance, particularly the unexpected outcomes of state tactics. Feldman's account opens the possibility for other scholars to continue to talk uncertainty in totalitarian or authoritarian regimes. The book is highly recommended for both area specialists and generalists interested in surveillance, policing, and security." -- Joanne Randa Nucho * Review of Middle East Studies *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Security Society in Gaza chapter abstractThis chapter describes the political, social, and security conditions in the Gaza Strip during the period of Egyptian rule and in the aftermath of the displacement and dispossession of much of the Palestinian population. It introduces and explains the "security society" that developed as the Egyptian Administration deployed an expansive policing apparatus. Security society was a field of both governance and action. The police used surveillance, suspicion, and informing to control politics, propriety, and illegality. And people sometimes worked with these same techniques to try to influence government policy and other people's behavior. Policing shaped relations among people and between people and their governors. The chapter also describes the rich, detailed, and unique archival record that is the source for this study. 1Cultivating suspicion and participation chapter abstractThis chapter explores how the Egyptian Administration established its expansive police presence in Gaza. It describes the articulation of a project of participation, where Palestinians were called upon, a request backed by coercive threat, to assist in this policing both by informing about others' behavior and by governing themselves. Policing also required, and equally was required by, a condition of suspicion. That is, police needed to be everywhere because they viewed everybody with suspicion, and their ability to engage the public sufficiently to let them be everywhere required making sure that this suspicion was widely shared. The chapter describes the police forces and practices that the Administration developed to support its security agenda. 2Uses of surveillance and informing chapter abstractThis chapter explores the signal importance of surveillance and informing in the policing of Gaza. No space or moment was deemed beyond the interest of the police. Given this expansiveness, it was inevitable that often as not surveillance provided little or no information about either criminal or political activity. Widespread surveillance was an important technique for controlling behavior. The chapter also explores the often unanticipated ways that techniques designed for control also created avenues for people to influence government policy and practice. Not only could generating suspicion about other people be a means of getting things done for oneself, the government's concerns about the population and the threat it could pose made it responsive to some of the desires that circulated among that population. 3Reputation, investigation, and criminal interdiction chapter abstractThis chapter describes the work of criminal interdiction, focusing on smuggling, petty crime, "honor" crimes, and police corruption. The work of crime control illuminates with particular clarity how the details of police practice brought police and public into close relation. And in this, reputation, of people and of police, was central. Reputation was mentioned in nearly every investigation of an individual, whether that person was targeted as a suspect or a witness to a crime or the report was part of the general surveillance system. People's reputations could make them suspects, make them vulnerable to crime, and sometimes protect them. 4Managing protest and public life chapter abstractIt was not only Egyptian authorities who made demands of Gazans; Palestinians also made claims of the Administration. The Administration was faced with the challenge of how both respond to and to contain these demands. That is, with how to create outlets for Palestinian public and political expression without losing control of the political field. In all of these struggles the language of citizenship was important, even in the absence of an independent to confer legal citizenship. This chapter explores three key arenas where the struggle over public life and political action occurred in Gaza: the circulation of ideas, the opportunity for protest, and the possibility of organized armed resistance to Israel. 5Peacekeeping and international community chapter abstractThis chapter explores the UN peacekeeping force, UNEF, that was deployed to Gaza after the brief 1956 occupation of the Strip by Israel. Tensions existed among UNEF soldiers, Gazan locals, and Egyptian officials, but UNEF's basic mission – to keep the peace – was accomplished successfully for ten years. The UNEF experience shows that security society in Gaza was not produced only in negotiations between Palestinians and Egyptians, but that this space was always connected to an international and a regional field whose actors mattered at the local level. In interventions like peacekeeping, lofty ideas about "international community" are worked out in small-scale and frequently messy interactions among people. Conclusion: The policing imperative chapter abstractThis chapter revisits the overarching arguments of the book and describes the police experience in Gaza after the Egyptian Administration. The extensive security apparatus developed to police the Gaza Strip during the Egyptian Administration was guided by intersecting concerns about national interest, social propriety, and everyday illegality. In pursuit of security in each of these areas the police extended their reach across the public domain and into many aspects of private life. Gaza's security society was centrally shaped by the specificities arising from the 1948 nakba [catastrophe]. Gaza's experience shows that techniques of security and surveillance also provide means for pursuing other politics. The control, invited and imposed, exercised by security systems does not have to be the end of the story.

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Book SynopsisThis book reveals and analyzes the ways in which highly contested, deeply divided urban space can generate opportunities for negotiation and new alliances over freedoms and rights.Trade Review"Analyzing new splits and alliances in Turkish socio-political, Berna Turam's inspiring book provides insights on power, resistance, and ideology, as well as their interactions in everyday life. A very timely book."—Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University, author of Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey"This exciting book tells the story of how cities can encourage an ethos of democracy and solidarity, enabling divided residents to resist authoritarian states and their ideological dogma. Drawing on the life-worlds of Turkish citizens in Istanbul and Turkish residents in Berlin, Gaining Freedoms represents one of the best treatments of the spatiality of politics in the context of the Middle East."—Asef Bayat, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, author of Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East"In Gaining Freedoms, Berna Turam brilliantly illuminates the spatiality of freedom and the manifold links between space and democracy in Istanbul and Berlin. She provides an invaluable service to the interdisciplinary and politically urgent task of thinking through claims for the right to space wherever they occur."—Tim Cresswell, Northeastern University" ... this is a valuable book both for its rich ethnographic approach and for presenting an alternative, microlevel perspective to think about what democratization entails and how it can progress."'—Paul Kubicek, American Journal of SociologyTable of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: The City and the Government chapter abstractThe introduction sets up the urban puzzle that motivates this book. It discusses the two major urban protests that defined contemporary Turkish politics: the Republican Marches in 2007 and the Taksim-Gezi Protests in 2013. Against the backdrop of literature on polarization between Islamists and the secularists, the research reveals deep fault lines among the secular residents over the accommodation of the Muslim ways of life. It analyzes the rise of new and often unconventional alliances, and the formation of spontaneous bonds that crosscut the previously taken-for-granted fault lines between the devout and secularist residents. 1Between State Spaces and Autonomous Places chapter abstractAfter discussing the nation-building period and its impact on urban space, particularly Istanbul, Chapter 1 presents the historical background of the interaction between Istanbul metropolitan and the Turkish state. Selectively engaging debates and existing theories on how state authority and autonomy of urban space encounter each other, Chapter 1 points to the disproportional use of force and encroachment of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) on urban life in major cities, particularly Istanbul. Highlighting AKP's highly contested encroachment on Istanbul's historic sites, the chapter links urban and political studies–two fields that conventionally talk past each other. It questions earlier literature that privileged socio-economic approaches at the cost of the political. Part 1: On Neighborhood Politics chapter abstractThe main goal of Part 1 is to explore how Teşvikiye, an upscale downtown Istanbul neighborhood, has increasingly become an attraction for outsiders and newcomers, while many of its affluent longtime residents left for the expensive gated communities on the outskirts of Istanbul. The ethnography illustrates the ways in which this spatial shift facilitated the inclusion of the pious visitors and the newcomer residents who did not mind the daily contact and cohabitation with masses of "pious strangers." 2A Neighborhood Divided by Lifestyle chapter abstractAfter a brief introduction of the neighborhood as a political site of contestation, Chapter 2 illustrates and analyzes the street-level confrontation in the neighborhood. The ethnography delineates the fault lines by identifying the major issues and conflicts in Teşvikiye. 3Affinities in the Zones of Freedom chapter abstractChapter 3 reveals the emergence of political cooperation and alliance out of these contested neighborly sites. It analyzes how the inclusive residents have become "committed participants" in the street-level contestations. The chapter argues that by dissociating both from the pious visitors and from the secularist old-timer residents, these predominantly middle class newcomers form a free zone of negotiation and compromise. By doing so, they contribute to the development of democratic and civil practices in the neighborhood and beyond. The chapter differentiates the politics of the newcomers from the urban or radical democracy because the local players in Teşvikiye, who propel democratization, are neither activists nor volunteers in any grassroots mobilization. Nor do they participate in local governance. To the contrary, the politics of these new inhabitants is in their presence and the way they live, utilize, and often unintentionally transform the urban space according to their lifestyle. Part 2: On Campus Politics chapter abstractThe short introduction to Part 2 releals the university campus as a contested political site. 4Fault Lines on Campus chapter abstractChapter 4 illustrates the political divides among and between faculty, students, and high-level administration in the University of Freedom (henceforth UF), the most liberal campus in Istanbul. First, the chapter overviews the socio-political transformation of the UF campus over the last two decades. It then documents how in the wake of the infamous presidential crisis in 2007 in Turkey, the UF campus went through its own local presidential crisis. 5New Coalitions in Safe Zones chapter abstractChapter 5 analyzes how the campus, unlike the parliament, accommodates vocal dissent and thereby generates a strong and vocal solidarity against the violation of freedom, privacy, and minority rights. By illustrating the chain events and deepening fault lines over these issues since 2008, the chapter shows that what is being negotiated at the UF is not Islamism versus secularism but individual freedoms, civil liberties, and rights. The UF campus regenerates prompt alliances against freedom violations, such as unsubstantiated detention of academics and students, regardless of whether liberties were suffocated by religious or secularist authoritarianism. The chapter ends by situating the UF politics into the recent nation-wide campus riots against the AKP. Part 3: On "Ethnic" Neighborhood chapter abstractPart 3 analyzes the politics of space in an ethnically concentrated neighborhood, the so-called Turkish neighborhood Kreuzberg in Berlin, at a time when Islamophobia and exclusion and discrimination against Muslim immigrants peaked in Europe. 6Kreuzberg's Divided Diaspora chapter abstractBy revealing the deep splits in the "ethnic neighborhood," Chapter 6 traces the ways in which the divisive political issues of immigrant-sending Turkey and immigrant-receiving Germany collide and entangle in the diasporic space. In analyzing the urban divides and contestation, this chapter shifts the focus from predominant debates of integration to the primacy of the meeting points of conflicts from home- and host land. The ethnography on Kreuzberg with its largest Turkish diaspora makes it possible to engage in debates on broader issues of Muslims in Europe. 7Emerging Solidarities in Immigrant Zones chapter abstractChapter 7 analyzes the ways in which an ethnic neighborhood generates new affinities and shared lifestyles between immigrant and native residents. It argues that instead of undermining integration because of residential segregation, Kreuzberg nourishes a new urbanism. Rather than occasioning mixed networks, however, this urbanism leads to mutual accommodation between previously excluded or marginalized groups in Germany—the Turkish immigrants, the LGBT, and the former anarchists of the Autonomous Movement. Concretely, these former "outcasts" with current alternative lifestyles share an aversion towards: a) the exclusive forms of German nationalism (epitomized by the Leitkultur), and b) the discriminating attitudes and policies against LGBT and other minorities. As a result of these shared feelings, the Kreuzbergers developed a deep sense of belonging to their neighborhood. Conclusion: Unified Opposition to the Divided Supremacy of the AKP chapter abstractThe concluding chapter studies the power of splits that is generated by new alliances and rises above old ideological divides. After a brief discussion of the Gezi protests and their aftermath, it maintains that democratic contestation in the city succeeds as long as the splits and alliances continue where they were born. The second part of the conclusion points to the recent rivalries, disagreement, and distrust that divide pious Muslims, which are comparable to the divides among the secularists analyzed in the book. Of great importance are the splits among the pious Muslim elite across various branches of the state, such as the parliament and the police. Paradoxically, the political distrust that divides the residents within the presumably homogenous Muslim and secular camps helps democratic institutions flourish as it gives people an incentive to rely more on political institutions than on their own community.

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Book SynopsisIn The Story of Reason in Islam, leading public intellectual and political activist Sari Nusseibeh narrates a sweeping intellectual historya quest for knowledge inspired by the Qu''ran and its language, a quest that employed Reason in the service of Faith. Eschewing the conventional separation of Faith and Reason, he takes a fresh look at why and how Islamic reasoning evolved over time. He surveys the different Islamic schools of thought and how they dealt with major philosophical issues, showing that Reason pervaded all disciplines, from philosophy and science to language, poetry, and law. Along the way, the best known Muslim philosophers are introduced in a new light. Countering received chronologies, in this story Reason reaches its zenith in the early seventeenth century; it then trails off, its demise as sudden as its appearance. Thereafter, Reason loses out to passive belief, lifeless logic, and a self-contained legalismin other words, to a less flexible Islam. NusseibeTrade Review"This engagingly written and ambitious intellectual history of Islam will provoke much thought and response. Novel in approach and mindful of the concerns of the present, it focuses not only on the story of philosophy, but also on the hermeneutics of scripture, the understanding of the arts and sciences, and the relation between law and ethics." -- Sajjad Rizvi * niversity of Exeter *"Sari Nusseibeh's The Story of Reason in Islam is a gift to the broadminded Western reader. It comes from a man of rare moral and intellectual standing who has risked much in his life to intellectual honesty and thorough fair-mindedness. It doesn't provide quick or easy answers about modern Islam, but it does convey the depth and complexity of traditions that Western pundits too frequently seem comfortable boiling down to 140 characters. Professor Nusseibeh's book is its own best argument for judging others cautiously and assuming their best intentions." -- Noah Kennedy * The Humanist *"Sari Nusseibeh's The Story of Reason in Islam is a very beautifully and thoughtfully written book." -- Heidrun Eichner * Reading Religion *"Written with the uninitiated in mind....Nusseibeh's sensitive, elliptical handling of dense metaphysical material echoes one of the book's central points: that the philosophical tradition in Arabic grew out of a world in which poetry was the preeminent means of expression....Through skillful weaving of events and ideas, Nusseibeh shows how politics determined the themes—justice, free will, the legitimacy of resisting an unjust leader—that became central to early Islamic thought." -- Yasmine Seale * Harper's Magazine *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Arabian Desert chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 2The Daunting Idea of God chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 3Free Will and Determinism chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 4The Qur'an: Created or Eternal? chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 5From Wasil to Ibn Hanbal chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 6Early Islam: Literacy, Conflict and Expansion chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 7Speculative Discourse: A Style chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 8Discourse: In Pursuit of the Ultimate Answers chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 9Law and Morality chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 10Al-Ma'moun and the Devil's Banquets. chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 11The Language-Logic debate chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 12Back to the Human Will and Language chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 13Expanding the View chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 14An Interlude: Caliph, Imam, and Philosopher-King chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 15Philosophy and Politics chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 16The Philosophers' "Frenzy" chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 17Back to Wine and Logic chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 18Motion and Light chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 19The Nature of Truth chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 20Fardajan and Beyond chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 21The Cosmos chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 22Cosmic Lights chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 23Fast Forward chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 24Language and Reason: The Dilemma chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways.

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Book SynopsisA history of the Ottoman participation in colonial expansion in Africa in the last 20 years of the 19th century, this book turns the spotlight onto the Ottoman Empire's experiment in "new imperialism."Trade Review"In this engaging and timely study, Mostafa Minawi demonstrates that the Ottoman Empire was capable of reinventing itself in the age of New Imperialism and finding alternative ways to compete with European powers for colonial possessions in Africa. This book will leave the reader with a richer understanding of the 'Scramble for Africa.'"—Janet Klein, The University of Akron"The Ottoman Scramble for Africa successfully demonstrates the value of a transcontinental approach to the history of empire. Mostafa Minawi has crafted a well-written and richly textured narrative that invites deeper engagement and conversations among scholars of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East."—Judith Byfield, Cornell University"Readers of Mostafa Minawi's The Ottoman Scramble for Africa are in for a treat. What starts out as the genealogy of a powerful Damascene Arab notable family evolves into a fascinating tale of Ottoman global ambitions in Libya and central Africa in the 1890s. With an engaging story, well-grounded in a number of archives, this book is a welcome piece of the puzzle surrounding late Ottoman colonialism."—Virginia Aksan, McMaster University"Minawi writes with passion and precision, and he has produced an accessible and thought-provoking book, having found in Azmzade an auspicious narrative hook. This is an ambitious book that casts light on hitherto unknown aspects of Ottoman history, the view from the perspective of the empire's outlying regions at the turn to the twentieth century."—Hasan Kayali, American Historical Review "The Ottoman Scramble for Africa is a fascinating analysis of the diplomatic endeavours of Istanbul at the end of the nineteenth century in Africa and Arabia. Scholars interested in the imperial borderlands in Africa and the Middle East need to read it and will benefit from its invaluable trans-imperial approach."—Vincent Hiribarren, Journal of Islamic Studies"Mostafa Minawi's book makes a major contribution to discourses about late nineteenth- century non-European colonialism in general and Ottoman colonialism in Africa in particular. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical paradigms and using historical sources in Near Eastern and European languages, Minawi has written an impressive work...The book will attract the interest of specialists of the Ottoman Empire and European imperial history in Africa, as well as Africanists and general researchers of colonialism."—Avishai Ben-Dror, The Journal of African History"Mostafa Minawi's book on Ottoman imperial presence in Africa constitutes an important intervention in the study of European colonialism. This is, indeed, an important book that greatly advances our understanding of the global implications of Europe's Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century. It will be of great interest to scholars of colonial Africa and the Middle East, as well to those with an interest in the global ramifications of European empire building."—Scott S. Reese, African Studies Review"Minawi is to be commended for bringing his considerable linguistic and archival skills to work on reframing our understanding of Ottoman imperialism in the age of the Scramble. His work...provides future scholars of the Ottomans a dynamic new framework for rethinking the meaning of empire in the nineteenth century."––Nathaniel Mathews, Journal of World HistoryTable of ContentsIntroduction: Old Empire, New Empire 1. Ottoman Libya, the Eastern Sahara, and the Central African Kingdoms 2. The Legal Production of Ottoman Colonial Africa 3. The Diplomatic Fight for Ottoman Africa 4. Resistance and Fortification, 1894–1899 5. Transimperial Strategies for an Intercontinental Empire 6. The Local Meets the Global on an Imperial Frontier Conclusion: The Blinding Teleology of Failure

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Book SynopsisA study of policing and security practices in the Gaza Strip during the period of Egyptian rule (1948–67), Police Encounters explores the complicated effects on Gazans of an extensive security apparatus guided by intersecting concerns about national interest, social propriety, and everyday illegality.Trade Review"Ilana Feldman demonstrates how policing is not simply the repression of crime, but the cultivation of a security society. Gaza stands as an exceptional case—but one exceptionally important to illuminate the pre-history of the policing and security conflicts that drove many of the Arab Spring revolutions. Exciting, lucid, profound, and sophisticated, Police Encounters is a must-read." -- Paul Amar * University of California, Santa Barbara, author of The Security Archipelago *"Beautifully weaving stories, histories and theory, Ilana Feldman illuminates the history of policing in Gaza under Egyptian rule. A remarkable work that opens new avenues of research and provides new ways of thinking about coercion and rule." -- Laleh Khalili * University of London, SOAS *"Police Encountersis an invaluable contribution to studies of security regimes and the role of surveillance, particularly the unexpected outcomes of state tactics. Feldman's account opens the possibility for other scholars to continue to talk uncertainty in totalitarian or authoritarian regimes. The book is highly recommended for both area specialists and generalists interested in surveillance, policing, and security." -- Joanne Randa Nucho * Review of Middle East Studies *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Security Society in Gaza chapter abstractThis chapter describes the political, social, and security conditions in the Gaza Strip during the period of Egyptian rule and in the aftermath of the displacement and dispossession of much of the Palestinian population. It introduces and explains the "security society" that developed as the Egyptian Administration deployed an expansive policing apparatus. Security society was a field of both governance and action. The police used surveillance, suspicion, and informing to control politics, propriety, and illegality. And people sometimes worked with these same techniques to try to influence government policy and other people's behavior. Policing shaped relations among people and between people and their governors. The chapter also describes the rich, detailed, and unique archival record that is the source for this study. 1Cultivating suspicion and participation chapter abstractThis chapter explores how the Egyptian Administration established its expansive police presence in Gaza. It describes the articulation of a project of participation, where Palestinians were called upon, a request backed by coercive threat, to assist in this policing both by informing about others' behavior and by governing themselves. Policing also required, and equally was required by, a condition of suspicion. That is, police needed to be everywhere because they viewed everybody with suspicion, and their ability to engage the public sufficiently to let them be everywhere required making sure that this suspicion was widely shared. The chapter describes the police forces and practices that the Administration developed to support its security agenda. 2Uses of surveillance and informing chapter abstractThis chapter explores the signal importance of surveillance and informing in the policing of Gaza. No space or moment was deemed beyond the interest of the police. Given this expansiveness, it was inevitable that often as not surveillance provided little or no information about either criminal or political activity. Widespread surveillance was an important technique for controlling behavior. The chapter also explores the often unanticipated ways that techniques designed for control also created avenues for people to influence government policy and practice. Not only could generating suspicion about other people be a means of getting things done for oneself, the government's concerns about the population and the threat it could pose made it responsive to some of the desires that circulated among that population. 3Reputation, investigation, and criminal interdiction chapter abstractThis chapter describes the work of criminal interdiction, focusing on smuggling, petty crime, "honor" crimes, and police corruption. The work of crime control illuminates with particular clarity how the details of police practice brought police and public into close relation. And in this, reputation, of people and of police, was central. Reputation was mentioned in nearly every investigation of an individual, whether that person was targeted as a suspect or a witness to a crime or the report was part of the general surveillance system. People's reputations could make them suspects, make them vulnerable to crime, and sometimes protect them. 4Managing protest and public life chapter abstractIt was not only Egyptian authorities who made demands of Gazans; Palestinians also made claims of the Administration. The Administration was faced with the challenge of how both respond to and to contain these demands. That is, with how to create outlets for Palestinian public and political expression without losing control of the political field. In all of these struggles the language of citizenship was important, even in the absence of an independent to confer legal citizenship. This chapter explores three key arenas where the struggle over public life and political action occurred in Gaza: the circulation of ideas, the opportunity for protest, and the possibility of organized armed resistance to Israel. 5Peacekeeping and international community chapter abstractThis chapter explores the UN peacekeeping force, UNEF, that was deployed to Gaza after the brief 1956 occupation of the Strip by Israel. Tensions existed among UNEF soldiers, Gazan locals, and Egyptian officials, but UNEF's basic mission – to keep the peace – was accomplished successfully for ten years. The UNEF experience shows that security society in Gaza was not produced only in negotiations between Palestinians and Egyptians, but that this space was always connected to an international and a regional field whose actors mattered at the local level. In interventions like peacekeeping, lofty ideas about "international community" are worked out in small-scale and frequently messy interactions among people. Conclusion: The policing imperative chapter abstractThis chapter revisits the overarching arguments of the book and describes the police experience in Gaza after the Egyptian Administration. The extensive security apparatus developed to police the Gaza Strip during the Egyptian Administration was guided by intersecting concerns about national interest, social propriety, and everyday illegality. In pursuit of security in each of these areas the police extended their reach across the public domain and into many aspects of private life. Gaza's security society was centrally shaped by the specificities arising from the 1948 nakba [catastrophe]. Gaza's experience shows that techniques of security and surveillance also provide means for pursuing other politics. The control, invited and imposed, exercised by security systems does not have to be the end of the story.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Orit Bashkin sheds light on a case of historical injustice. Impossible Exodus will greatly enhance our understanding of the pain, discrimination, and struggle to survive in a different culture that those immigrants had to endure." -- Abbas Shiblak * University of Oxford *"A marvelously clear-eyed and compassionate recovery of the experience of Iraqi Jews forced to seek a new life in Israeli transit camps. Orit Bashkin gives these people voice, agency, and sympathetic understanding in their complex struggles against discrimination and cultural loss." -- Roger Owen * Harvard University *"What is distinctive about Bashkin's book on Iraqi Jews is the many stories she recovers that describe not only the difficulties encountered by immigrants but also the humiliations imposed by thoughtless and prejudiced officials put in charge of people whose culture they neither understood nor respected." -- Donna Robinson Divine * Middle East Journal *"[Impossible Exodus] documents with great skill and in great detail the conflicts that followed the confrontation with a dominant Ashkenazi elite and its hegemonic grip on Israel's politics, culture, and economy. Bashkin has written a balanced, meticulously referenced, non-polemical, yet deeply critical account of structural and open racism in Israel."––Peter Wein, American Historical Review"Bashkin's book offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the Iraqi-Jewish experience in both local and regional terms. As such, it opens new vistas on current debates and advances our understanding of historical phenomena of enduring relevance to Israeli discourse today." -- Haim Saadoun * Israel Studies Review *"Impossible Exodus is a valuable addition to the growing literaturewhich has first raised awareness of the experiences of Jewish populations in the Arabic-speaking world in their home countries and within Israel." -- Sarah Irving * Mashriq & Mahjar *"Impossible Exodus is an exceptional exposé of the sufferings of the Iraqi and Mizrahi Jews in Israel during the 1950s...[It] paves the way for a critical rethinking of ethnic, racial, and sectarian discrimination of Iraqi Jews as practiced by the Israeli state elites in the 1950s." -- Övg Ülgen * Shofar *"Bashkin's evaluation of the complex identities and nomenclature of Iraqi Jews in Israel could serve as a model for scholars studying populations shaped by common loyalties, migrations, and responses to shifting political circumstances." -- Liora R. Halperin * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *"Bashkin's project is humanistic at its core, weaving together both [Iraqis'] sufferings and their triumphs in fighting marginality and asserting their Mizrahiyut in a system that denied them a voice and recognition." -- Yaël Mizrahi-Arnaud * The Tel Aviv Review of Books *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: The Death of an Arab Jew chapter abstractThis chapter contextualizes the history of Iraqi Jews in Israel within Zionist, Mizrahi, Arab, and global histories. While liberal Zionist discourse emphasizes that Israel before 1967 was an ethical society, attempting to meet the challenges of survival and migration, the Introduction argues that the period from 1948 to 1967 was one of the most horrific eras in Israel's history, when many of its citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, were faced with losing their past homes, livelihoods, and, essentially, everything that they had, amid the indifference of the people living around them. This chapter describes how the state interacted with the Iraqi Jewish community as a project of social engineering, wherein state elites believed that all immigrants, especially Middle Eastern Jews, needed to become Hebrew-speaking, socialist Zionists. 1Human Material chapter abstractThis chapter shows that Iraqi Jews in Israel were migrant-citizens. They had been granted citizenship rights upon their arrival, so that they could vote in general elections and receive welfare benefits and social services. Nonetheless, because the authorities believed they came from a primitive country and were in need of discipline, and because the state did not have resources to attend to their needs, Iraqi Jews were treated as migrant-citizens, namely, as people who should be thankful for the little they got and who were undeserving of full citizenship rights. Iraqi Jews, as well as other groups of migrants to Israel, were classified as "human material," a classification that reflects their dependency on the state and their dehumanization as a result of migration. 2Children of Iraq, Children of Israel chapter abstractThis chapter tells the story of Iraqi-Jewish children in Israel, who grew up in transit camps, in the poor neighborhoods, and on kibbutzim. These children were quicker to adjust to the new living conditions in Israel as their memories of Iraq faded and they learned Hebrew. And yet, these children were the most vulnerable group among the newcomers. They suffered from malnutrition; their parents could not always deal with the pain of displacement and sometimes took out their anger on their children; they attended poor-quality schools; and they often had to leave school to work to support their families. These able and creative children, however, learned how to adjust to the new conditions and challenge and resist the state. 3The Only Democracy in the Middle East chapter abstractThis chapter proposes that the Israeli political system, despite being only partially democratic, offered venues in which Iraqi Jews could voice their complaints. It looks at political parties that had Iraqi-Jewish members who were active in the transit camps and published in the Arabic newspapers of various political parties. The chapter explores Iraqi-Jewish involvement in these organizations and analyzes how parties' leaders conceptualized their relationship to Iraqi Jews. Despite the parties' efforts at outreach, however, none of the political organizations in Israel offered a comprehensive solution to the Iraqi problem. At each and every step of the way, the parties' refusal to recognize the racism of their own members curtailed the possibility of providing a genuine solution. 4Elements of Resistance chapter abstractFocusing on the issue of political action, this chapter explores elements of resistance to the state's politics. Despite being poor migrants, Iraqi Jews became subversive political actors. From transit camps to the streets of towns, Iraqi Jews resisted the state's housing and employment politics, wrote and sang protest songs, established local committees to negotiate their concerns with the state, showered the state's ministries and administrative bodies with petitions, and destroyed public property. Some were successful in that they managed to secure livelihoods for unemployed individuals, improve their living conditions, or gain employment. Others' protests were less successful in achieving the newcomers' goals, but were effective in raising public awareness of the sufferings of Iraqi Jews. 5Israeli Babylonians chapter abstractThis chapter highlights three identities of the Iraqi-Jewish community that emerged during the 1950s and 1960s in Israel. The first is Iraqi; facing hardships in Israel, Iraq became the Promised Land for many Iraqi Jews. The second was Arab-Jewish; Iraqi Jews continued writing and communicating in Arabic with Arabic-speaking Israeli Jews and Palestinians. Their mastery of Arabic also made them valuable to the state as teachers, translators, and members of the state's security apparatus. The third was Mizrahi, an identity shaped through the struggle against Ashkenazi hegemony, which connected Iraqi Jews to other non-European Jews. The intertwining of these identities created Israelis of Iraqi descent, who were critical of the Ashkenazi establishment, and yet considered themselves Israeli patriots. Conclusion: The Death of Arab Jewishness chapter abstractThe chapter looks at the history of Iraqi Jews in Israel after 1967. It suggests that contemporary Mizrahi debates have their roots in the 1950s and 1960s, when some Iraqi Jews chose to focus on exclusively the Mizrahi and Iraqi struggle for civil rights, while others, especially communists, sided with the Palestinian struggle. Today, Mizrahi radicals are torn on the issue of the connections, or their absence, between their struggles and those of other oppressed groups in Israel, especially the Palestinians. Looking ahead, it seems very plausible that Israel will become a more segregated society, where Iraqi Jews will still partake of Mizrahi Arab culture as produced in Israel, yet will struggle as Jews in the Jewish state.

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Book SynopsisPartners of Empire offers a radical rethinking of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and early 19th centuries.Trade Review"Ali Yaycioglu's magnificent study provides us with a deeply researched portrait of the relationship between the Ottoman provinces and the imperial capital in the tumultuous years of the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century when the very future of the Empire was uncertain. Moving beyond generic references to 'the age of the ayan,' Yaycioglu draws compelling portraits of the individuals, and their provincial milieux, who fought both with and against Istanbul to create the Empire anew." -- Molly Greene * Princeton University *"Ali Yaycioglu skillfully weaves a complex narrative of the 18th-century Ottoman political landscape, illuminating the struggles as well as the coalitions between various social groups. His compelling account should be required reading not only for those interested in the history of the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans, and the Middle East, but in global history as well." -- Şevket Pamuk, Boğaziçi University * Istanbul *"This book not only fills the arguably single most important gap in early modern Middle Eastern history by providing a cohesive narrative for the eighteenth century in the Ottoman Empire, but it also teaches a lesson about how to write world history by centering the focus of analysis outside the West. Ali Yaycioglu's work offers the most conclusive corrective to the still often-heard argument that representative institutions are a foreign import to the Middle East." -- Baki Tezcan, University of California * Davis *"In its use of archival sources and its conceptual framework, Partners of the Empire embodies superb scholarship. It speaks to fundamental questions—popular sovereignty and the commensurability of European political developments. The emphasis on the Ottoman figure—the provincial ayan—and his imagined "partnership" in the empire is a significant contribution to our knowledge. At last, we now have a detailed exploration of their world." -- Adam Mestyan * Hungarian Historical Review *"Partners of the Empire is a superb piece of scholarship and its author, Ali Yaycıolu, makes compelling arguments. Not only does he incorporate large amounts of secondary-source literature—including Turkish- language scholarship that is sometimes overlooked by Ottoman historians in the Anglophone world—but also seamlessly integrates his own (massive amount of) primary-source research into the rather vast and disparate literature that deals with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries." -- Harun Kk * BUSTAN: The Middle East Book Review *"[A]s Yaycioglu has shown, the Ottoman Empire grappled with the very same problems that its European counterparts did and attempted to reform itself accordingly. And like those in the empires of those counterparts, some reforms worked and others did not. If, then, we are to understand the Age of Revolutions as a global phenomenon, which it most certainly was, Yaycioglu's study is an important intervention that compels us to reconsider revolution and reform in the Ottoman Empire as evidence that its crises of empire occurred in lockstep with similar crises that arose contemporaneously in the empires of its rivals and allies." -- Robert John Clines * H-War *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: chapter abstractThe introduction of the book engages in a discussion on the growing historiography of the global age of revolutions and recent debates about the transformation of the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It argues that the global context helps us to understand the transformation of the Ottoman Empire in a more comparative and connected fashion and at the same time the Ottoman experience helps us to see the global context in a more synchronic and less linear way. 1Empire: Order, Crisis, and Reform, 1700-1806 chapter abstractThis chapter offers a brief sketch of the Ottoman world in the eighteenth century and examines the New Order, a set of reform agendas proposed by the Ottoman imperial elite to bring military and fiscal crisis to an end. Some of these reform agendas threatened segments of society, particularly those who endorsed the political claims of the Janissaries. It argues that neither the New Order nor the opposition were monolithic groups, but large coalitions with branches in the provinces, diverse positions, and various interests. 2The Notables: Governance, Power, and Wealth chapter abstractThis chapter discusses the nature of the relationship between the provincial elite and the empire in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries. It argues that throughout the eighteenth century provincial notables came to act as fiscal, administrative, and military entrepreneurs who engaged in formal or informal contractual relations with the empire. These contractual relations were based on offers, acceptances, rejections, and counteroffers in a volatile arena, without the formal security of contract, status, property, and life. The process gradually produced a new order of notables: the empire was run by partnerships between central and provincial elites. Some provincial notables joined the coalition of the New Order, while others acted with the opposition 3Communities: Collective Action, Leadership, and Politics chapter abstractChapter Three analyzes the ways in which provincial communities responded to changes in the eighteenth century. It argues that while the central administration was disconnected from the provinces and outsourced authority to provincial notables, provincial communities developed bottom-up mechanisms to manage fiscal and administrative matters under the supervision of elected or communally nominated notables. Instead of reversing this participatory and electoral process and launching a centralizing policy, the central administration institutionalized bottom-up collective actions. In the new provincial order, collective action became a source of legitimacy. Provincial communities were becoming political actors—sometimes with and sometimes at expense of notables—in governance. 4Crisis: Riots, Conspiracies, and Revolutions, 1806-1808 chapter abstractThis chapter shifts to a narrative history of the events that took place between August 1806 and November 1808. Stories from previous chapters converge in Chapter Four, highlighting popular opposition to the New Order led by the Janissaries, shifting coalitions between provincial and imperial elites, growing politicization of the communities, and the trans-imperial story of the Napoleonic wars and wartime diplomacy. A series of contingencies, shifting alliances, and dead-ends led to the eventual collapse of The New Order due to a Janissary led popular revolt in 1807, after which government was restored. 5Settlement: The Deed of Alliance and the Empire of Trust (1808) chapter abstractThis chapter presents a textual analysis of the Deed of Alliance. Close reading of the text, combined with commentary, is followed by a discussion of the document's reception in modern history and its place among other constitutional texts from the Age of Revolutions. A political coalition formed between the elites of the New Order and a group of provincial notables for a coup d'état to restore the New Order. This coalition manifested itself in the Deed of Alliance, which envisioned a new imperial order based on partnership, security, stability (instead of volatility), and trust among elites. The Deed was a constitutional synthesis of the New Order and order of notables. Conclusion: chapter abstractThe conclusion provides a perspective on the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century transformation of the Ottoman order. It argues that the structural developments that appeared in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, namely fiscal-military and administrative reform, the development of negotiational relations between the central government and the provincial notables, and the increasing participation of the communities in governance shaped the transformation in modern times until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of modern nation-states in the Balkans and the Middle East.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Yoav Alon removes Shaykh Mithqal from the realm of Orientalist stereotype and rightfully places him at the center of Jordanian history. Mithqal was a complicated, charismatic man, and Alon shows us how he thought and maneuvered, how he adapted to radical socioeconomic change, and how he lived in public and private. Vividly told and grounded in meticulous archival and oral historical research, The Shaykh of Shaykhs will transform the way we understand the tribal leaders who shaped the contemporary Middle East. A rare and fascinating study."—Andrew Shryock, University of Michigan"An outstanding study of leadership and authority in Bedouin society. Mithqal was one of the last great Arab shaykhs, and in Yoav Alon he found the perfect biographer. A remarkable achievement."—Eugene Rogan, University of Oxford, author of The Arabs: A History and The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East"The Shaykh of Shaykhs is remarkable, persuasive, and a good read. Yoav Alon persuasively spells out how understanding tribal leadership in Jordan's past remains essential for understanding the political and social realities and constraints following the 'Arab Spring.'"—Dale F. Eickelman, author of The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach"In telling Mithqal's story, Alon strikes a delicate balance between empathy and objectivity. His account is entertaining, full of anecdotes and fsacinating personal, political and sociological details."—Sally Bland, Jordan Times"Alon has done an outstanding job....The many anecdotes with which Alon peppers the story make this book a joy to read. In fact, while this is a book that will certainly offer a lot of new information to scholars of Jordanian tribal life, it is written in a very accessible way."—Joas Wagemakers, Die Welt Des Islams"[A] well-written and often richly descriptive picture of the patriarch of one of Jordan's most notable political families that serves as a lens for both specialist and nonspecialist readers to consider the crafting of a state, the narratives that are made to frame it and its modernity, and the intersection of interpersonal and state politics in both....With The Shaykh of Shayks, Yoav Alon has given us another piece of critical scholarship with which to foster better, critical understanding of complex histories with immediate relevance."—Elena D. Corbett, International Journal of Middle East StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Born a Shaykh 2. From Maverick to Powerful Shaykh 3. The Decade of Power and Glory 4. Between Tent, Camp, and House 5. Times of Crisis 6. Disgruntled Accommodation Epilogue: Jordan after Mithqal

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Book SynopsisThis volume explores violence in the public lives of modern Middle Eastern cities—as a collective act, a historical event, and an urban process.Trade Review"Violence has long been a major feature of social and political life in Middle Eastern cities, but no single volume surveys so much of the area in the way that this one does. It is extremely wide-ranging in its concerns, from 18th century Egypt, to early 20th century Iran, to Saudi Arabia in the late 1960s, based on diplomatic documents, contemporary chronicles and grounded in careful theorization and conceptualization. Altogether, it is a truly path-breaking collection." -- Peter Sluglett Middle East Institute * National University of Singapore *"Violence in the City is an impressive work, and it represents a bold move to foreground violence in considerations of the Middle Eastern city. The powerful and convincing arguments in this book will resonate widely." -- Benjamin Brower * The University of Texas at Austin *"This outstanding collection of essays is a revelation in many senses. Its consistently meticulous scholarship uncovers the details of a wide range of episodes that are further enhanced by serious engagement with theoretical debates concerning violence in urban politics. This empirical breadth and theoretical depth make it invaluable for students both of Middle Eastern history and of the politics of the city." -- Charles Tripp, SOAS * University of London *"Through the use of both empirical and theoretical approaches based on original research, Violence and the City in the Modern Middle East demonstrates the mutually constitutive relationship between violence and the city. The volume should be considered a major contribution to the field of urban violence and urban history in general and to the burgeoning field of urban violence in the Middle East in particular. With urban violence having been inflicted on different cities of the Middle East from Syria to Iraq, the essays in this volume provide us with fresh insights into the connection between violence and the city that goes beyond rudimentary and essentialist arguments to the deconstruction of space, language, state, and society, and their relationship to urban violence." -- Bedross Der Matossian * American Historical Review *"Fuccaro's volume of twelve essays showcases an ambitious interdisciplinary collaboration in the growing field of urban violence in the Middle East....By prioritizing the specific spatial characteristics, temporal rhythms, and diverse actors, [the essays] move beyond common stereotypes about the Middle East, providing a nuanced portrayal of the variegated urban constituencies, the alliances they build, the challenges they endure, and the tensions they experience."––Zeynep Kezer, International Journal of Islamic ArchitectureTable of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Urban Life and Questions of Violence Nelida Fuccaro chapter abstractDrawing on theoretical, regional, and cross-regional literature on cities and violence this chapter argues for the salience of urban violence in the study of the early modern, modern, and contemporary Middle East. It explores methodological, conceptual and ethical issues from a variety of perspectives. It examines violence and the city as objects of academic knowledge in combination with each other and with analytical categories such as power, space/place, language, and modernity, highlighting the protean nature of violence both as a productive and a destructive force. This chapter also brings attention to specific themes emerging from historiographies on Europe, Asia, and Africa and their relevance to the study of urban violence in the context of the Middle East. It also introduces the contents of the volume, and sketches urban geographies and experiences of violence using examples from the region in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 2The Semantics of Violence and Space Rasmus Christian Elling chapter abstractThis chapter explores how urban histories of violence are reflected in language, whether in piercing words and clear images or in distorted allegories and muted allusions. It explores the intersection between the semantic categories of 'space' and 'violence' drawing on methodological issues emerging from the case studies presented in this volume, and on relevant theoretical literature. The chapter discusses the fluid and sometimes controversial boundaries between vocabularies employed in the historical sources and those used in historical research; between language about violence and language as violence; and between the numerous languages in which the historians in this volume have conducted their research. 3Elite Conflict and the Urban Environment: Eighteenth-Century Cairo James E. Baldwin chapter abstractThis chapter explores the violent factional conflicts fought by the Ottoman political elites in the city's streets. Drawing on narratives of violent conflict in eighteenth-century chronicles, the chapter suggests that this violence was constrained by norms and values that were informed by notions of personal honor, courage, and manliness, and by a conception of justice focusing on the daily needs of ordinary Cairenes. The chapter explores the operation of these norms with respect to the impact of violence on the urban environment, including private homes, public spaces, and infrastructure. 4Urban Space and Prestige: When Festivals Turned Violent in Jeddah, 1880s-1960s Ulrike Freitag chapter abstractThis chapter discusses a traditional dance, the mizmar, as a locus of young male sociability and quarter mobilization in Jeddah. Besides entertainment, it served the purpose of territorial demarcation within the city and could turn into a violent confrontation, notably between quarters. With the monopolization of violence by the nascent Saudi state and with urban growth and change, the dance became folklorized and lost its social function in urban politics. 5Citizenship Rights and Semantics of Colonial Power and Resistance: Haifa, Jaffa, and Nablus, 1931-1933 Lauren Banko chapter abstractHistorians have studied acts of violence in Mandate Palestine in strictly nationalist, communal, or, in the case of the Arabs, anti-Zionist, terms. This chapter approaches specific episodes of urban unrest in the early 1930s as the first example of a shift from nonviolent to violent opposition against the British administration's disregard for the civil and political rights of the Arab population. Taking into consideration Haifa, Jaffa, and Nablus as politically-networked urban centers and focusing on citizenship rights, the chapter shows how this transformation in tactics occurred in the crucial years of urbanization that transformed the political socialization of urban residents leading to the emergence of new civic associations. The chapter also analyses the language of resistance to colonial authority used in the Arab press and that of colonial repression, the latter particularly after the 1933 riots in Jaffa. 6Challenging the Ottoman Pax Urbana: Intercommunal Clashes in 1857 Tunis Nora Lafi chapter abstractIn 1857 the city of Tunis witnessed the first anti-Jewish riots in Tunisian history. These events marked the end of the communal balance that had until then characterized the Ottoman pax urbana under the old regime, and took place in the context of the difficult implementation of Ottoman reform in the province of Tunisia, and of the growing influence of European consuls in urban and provincial affairs. This chapter analyzes the various logics that led to the outbreak of communal strife: the instrumentalization of popular violence by different urban factions; the influence of state violence on popular will; and the link between a novel form of resentment against the Jewish community and the ambiguous actions of European consuls who held increasingly evident colonial views of and ambitions over local society. 7A Tamed Urban Revolution: Saudi Arabia's Oil Conurbation and the 1967 Riots Claudia Ghawri chapter abstractThis chapter discusses the riots that occurred during the Six-Day War in June 1967 in the newly-urbanized centers of oil production in Saudi Arabia. It refutes the widely accepted idea that the partly violent protests by oil workers and the local population were a spontaneous and somewhat irrational expression of anti-American sentiment. In the spirit of Henri Lefebvre's famous concept of the "urban revolution," this chapter recognizes recurrent social tensions and everyday violence in the oil conurbation as the reasons for urban conflict. It argues that while the Arab war effort against Israel surely triggered local reactions, the intensity of the protests, their location, and the targets of the protesters were determined by this urban problematic and orchestrated by the Saudi authorities who wanted to prevent the expansion of local unrest. 8Making and Unmaking Spaces of Security:Basra as Battlefront, Basra Insurgent(1980–1991) Dina Rizk Khoury chapter abstractThis chapter examines the impact of the Iran-Iraq and First Gulf wars on the spatial organization of Basra between 1980 and 1991. It argues that the Iraqi military, security, and Ba'th Party turned Basra and its surrounding towns into spaces of security. This process of securitization took place through the deployment of spatial strategies that included surveillance, documentation, control, and extra-judicial violence. The security practices of the party, military, and security organizations, and the social and spatial dislocation created by the chaotic withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait shaped rebels' patterns of participation and the targets of their violence during the 1991 popular uprising at the end of the First Gulf war. Thus, the chapter explores the links between the sustained violence of the wars and the episodic violence of the 1991 uprising. 9A Patriotic Uprising: Baghdadi Jews and the Wathba Orit Bashkin chapter abstractThis chapter deals with the participation of Jews in the Wathba, a wave of grassroots demonstrations that occurred in Baghdad during the winter of 1948. Students, workers, the middle classes, and the urban poor took to the streets demanding liberty, fair distribution of state resources, social justice, and an end to British intervention in Iraqi politics. These events are used to reflect on how Baghdadi Jews interacted with urban space and the urban sphere, informing their political choices, relationship with Iraqi Muslims, and their identity politics. It argues that participation in the Wathba, and in the ceremonies commemorating its martyrs, gave Baghdadi Jews an opportunity to perform their nationalism and patriotism at a time when the state gradually equated every Jew with a Zionist. The Wathba created a sense of community from below, a moment of patriotism and heroism which was silenced by Zionist and Arab nationalist historiography. 10Dissecting Moments of Unrest: Twenty-Century Kirkuk Nelida Fuccaro chapter abstractDrawing on literature on Indian communalism, this chapter dissects two episodes of civil unrest that took place in Kirkuk in 1924 and 1959 in order to bring into focus some constitutive elements of state and popular violence during the Hashemite monarchy. It considers a variety of actors and historical factors: the city's communities, military, and police forces; British colonialism and the oil industry. Urban space is analyzed as a place of conflict, state repression, and communal memory, taking into consideration the role played by different languages of violence and on violence in causing bloodshed, and in mediating its interpretations. The chapter also draws attention to the long-term symbiosis between state discipline, communal conflict, and the restoration of order. The aim is to provide an alternative and more nuanced reading of the long-term conflict between Turkmens and Kurds which has been interpreted as an expression of ethno-nationalist confrontation. 11War of Clubs: Struggle for Space in Abadan and the 1946 Oil Strike Rasmus Christian Elling chapter abstractThis chapter challenges simplistic representations of the intercommunal violence that took place during the 1946 oil strike in Abadan, in the Iranian province of Khuzestan, as rooted either in primordial ethnic hatred or in an imperialist plot. The chapter reconstructs in detail several days of tensions and clashes, and places them within a historical context of coercive industrial urban development, labor activism, ethnic mobilization and global politics. Using oil company records, national archives and personal accounts, the focus of the analysis is the socio-spatial unit of the club as a place for socialization, a site of strife in the life of an oil city, and as a key political space with significance in the evolution of the modern Iranian nation state. 12Urban Rupture: A Fire, Two Hotels, and the Transformation of Cairo Yasser Elsheshtawy chapter abstractThis chapter seeks to spatialize the construct of urban violence by examining how one particular event — the great Cairo fire —led to the reconfiguration of the city's downtown space and to a shift in Cairo's planning paradigm. Two hotels, Shepheard's and the Nile Hilton, are used as case studies to illustrate these trends. Both are analyzed as symbols of a prevailing socio-political order. The destruction of the former in 1952 and the construction of the latter in the following years are discussed within the overall framework of urban violence. Both of these buildings reveal a specific moment in Cairo's history in which the past was cast aside, removed, and destroyed, and in its place a new vision was promulgated aimed squarely at engaging Cairo and in turn Egypt with the wider world. It argues that Cairo's twentieth-century urban development can be read through these two incidents.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Yoav Alon removes Shaykh Mithqal from the realm of Orientalist stereotype and rightfully places him at the center of Jordanian history. Mithqal was a complicated, charismatic man, and Alon shows us how he thought and maneuvered, how he adapted to radical socioeconomic change, and how he lived in public and private. Vividly told and grounded in meticulous archival and oral historical research, The Shaykh of Shaykhs will transform the way we understand the tribal leaders who shaped the contemporary Middle East. A rare and fascinating study."—Andrew Shryock, University of Michigan"An outstanding study of leadership and authority in Bedouin society. Mithqal was one of the last great Arab shaykhs, and in Yoav Alon he found the perfect biographer. A remarkable achievement."—Eugene Rogan, University of Oxford, author of The Arabs: A History and The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East"The Shaykh of Shaykhs is remarkable, persuasive, and a good read. Yoav Alon persuasively spells out how understanding tribal leadership in Jordan's past remains essential for understanding the political and social realities and constraints following the 'Arab Spring.'"—Dale F. Eickelman, author of The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach"In telling Mithqal's story, Alon strikes a delicate balance between empathy and objectivity. His account is entertaining, full of anecdotes and fsacinating personal, political and sociological details."—Sally Bland, Jordan Times"Alon has done an outstanding job....The many anecdotes with which Alon peppers the story make this book a joy to read. In fact, while this is a book that will certainly offer a lot of new information to scholars of Jordanian tribal life, it is written in a very accessible way."—Joas Wagemakers, Die Welt Des Islams"[A] well-written and often richly descriptive picture of the patriarch of one of Jordan's most notable political families that serves as a lens for both specialist and nonspecialist readers to consider the crafting of a state, the narratives that are made to frame it and its modernity, and the intersection of interpersonal and state politics in both....With The Shaykh of Shayks, Yoav Alon has given us another piece of critical scholarship with which to foster better, critical understanding of complex histories with immediate relevance."—Elena D. Corbett, International Journal of Middle East StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Born a Shaykh 2. From Maverick to Powerful Shaykh 3. The Decade of Power and Glory 4. Between Tent, Camp, and House 5. Times of Crisis 6. Disgruntled Accommodation Epilogue: Jordan after Mithqal

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A distinguished ethnographer, Pascal Menoret excavates the Islamic Awakening in Saudi Arabia with great empathy and understanding. Once again, he demonstrates his ability to penetrate a world often associated with radicalism, bigotry, intolerance and violence, bringing us face to face with the men of the movement, and their rise and demise in the Saudi state." -- Madawi al-Rasheed * London School of Economics, author of Salman's Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia *"Pascal Menoret is an intrepid field researcher who gained unique access to communities in Saudi Arabia either closed to or ignored by other Western scholars. His insights into how the physical geography of Riyadh has shaped the development of its various social mobilizations are provocative and enlightening. This book is a fascinating read." -- F. Gregory Gause III * Texas A&M University, author of The International Relations of the Persian Gulf *"There is no doubt that this study will be invaluable to anyone interested in Middle East studies with a focus on Islamic activism, youth recruitment and mobilization, spatial politics and the intersection of urban planning, activism, and state repression. This original work is a much-needed intervention that advocates for the urgency and need for activism that 'may resurface when the conditions are ripe'" -- Jonas Elbousty * International Journal of Middle East Studies *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Part I: The Islamic Awakening chapter abstractThe Islamic Awakening is a political movement created in schools, colleges, and mosques by educators, preachers, and clerics. This part looks at how everyday Saudis become activists, and what type of repression they encounter when organizing and protesting in public. 2Part II: Saudi Suburbia chapter abstractThe Islamic Awakening emerged in the sprawling landscape of the Saudi suburbs, created in the 1960s and 1970s by princes and developers with the help of European urban planners. This part looks at the making of Saudi suburbia and examines the victory of Islamic Awakening candidates in the municipal elections of 2005. 3Part III: Awareness Groups and Summer Camps chapter abstractThe electoral victory of 2005 was the result of the mobilization of myriads of Islamic Awakening groups in local mosques, schools, and summer camps. This part analyzes the everyday structures of the Awakening: a high school Islamic group and the annual summer camps of the movement. It looks at how political repression targets everyday Islamic activism. 4Part IV: Leaving Islamic Activism Behind chapter abstractAs a result of the increased crackdown on Islamic movements, young activists have either tried to reform the Islamic Awakening from within or taken their distances with the movement. This part looks at the consequences of repression on individual mobilization, and analyzes the current state of the Islamic movement in Saudi Arabia.

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Book SynopsisExamines the performance of the Allies' Mediterranean Expeditionary Force from the beginning of the Gallipoli Campaign to the bitter end. This book is a view of the Gallipoli Campaign unique in its detail and scope, as well as in its conclusions - a book that looks past myth and distortion to the facts of what happened.Trade ReviewRhys Crawley takes a revisionist sledgehammer to one of the remaining myths of the Gallipoli campaign: that the Allies could have won the Suvla offensive of August 1915. In a series of carefully constructed chapters he demonstrates that the operation's failure was a function of structure rather than circumstance. Not only was the plan too ambitious, but it placed far too much faith in the possibilities of maneuver in an age of industrialized positional warfare. The result was all too typical of the Great War - an aggregation of sacrifices as futile as they were heroic."" - Dennis Showalter, author of Hitler's Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare""Rhys Crawley's rigorous examination of the August offensives at Gallipoli - in particular the artillery and logistic support required for a successful attack - deepens our understanding of why the First World War was so expensive in casualties, while the front lines seemed to move hardly at all. This book is highly recommended for all those interested in the Gallipoli campaign and in the operations of the First World War as a whole."" - Robert O'Neill, author of The German Army and the Nazi Party, 1933 - 1939

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Book SynopsisThis volume selects major moments and key players from the seventh century to the twenty-first that have defined Muslim networks as the building blocks for Islamic identity and social cohesion. The essays provide a long view of Muslim networks, correcting both scholarly omission and political sloganeering.

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Book SynopsisFrom Homer's hymn to Apollo to the writing of French-Algerian philosopher Jacques Derrida, this anthology juxtaposes the voices and experiences of travelers, exiles, and colonizers who have lived in or visited the Mediterranean region since before 1200 B C E.

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Book SynopsisDuring the thirteenth century, the widespread conviction that the Christian lands in Syria and Palestine were of utmost importance to Christendom, and that their loss was a sure sign of God''s displeasure with Christian society, pervaded nearly all levels of thought. Yet this same society faced other crises: religious dissent and unorthodox beliefs were proliferating in western Europe, and the powers exercised, or claimed, by the kings of Europe were growing rapidly.The sources presented here illustrate the rising criticism of the changing Crusade idea. They reflect a sharpened awareness among Europeans of themselves as a community of Christians and the slow beginnings of the secular culture and political organization of Europe.

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Book SynopsisSurveys the impact of religion as it evolved on the culture and civilization of ancient Egypt.Trade Review"A monument and a classic. . . . In this book we find the impact of nature upon religion in the abounding land of Egypt; the first skepticism and questionings of the system; the search for social justice as an answer to social woes, and the consequent seizure of royal privileges by lesser men; the attempt to assert monotheism; humble trust in a forgiving god; and the final triumph of priestly rule over religion. Because it is remote from us in time and place, we can look at it in detachment. And yet, in its cadences and in its stresses, it is our own story." * John A. Wilson, from the Introduction *"A masterly study of the development of religion and thought in ancient Egypt. . . . No better attempt has been made to trace from beginning to end the leading categories of life, thought, and civilization as they successfully made their mark on religion, or to follow religion from age to age, disclosing especially how it was shaped by these influences, and how in turn it reacted to society." * E. O. James *

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Book Synopsis"A welcome addition to the study of the ancient Near East. It breaks away from Eurocentric approaches and tries to do justice to Mesopotamian thought, thus shedding new light on the relationship between text and representation... Bahrani's book will become the center of a lively debate."-Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTrade Review"Bahrani opens up the field of discourse for the study of ancient Near Eastern art and brings it into dialogue with current disciplinary trends. . . . The book will stimulate further discussion about the nature(s) of Babylonian and Assyrian representation across the disciplinary divides." * Journal of the American Oriental Society *"A welcome addition to the study of the ancient Near East. It breaks away from Eurocentric approaches and tries to do justice to Mesopotamian thought, thus shedding new light on the relationship between text and representation. . . . Bahrani's book will become the center of a lively debate." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction 1. The Aesthetic and the Epistemic: Race, Culture, and Antiquity 2. The Extraterrestrial Orient: Despotic Time and the Time of the Despots 3. Ethnography and Mimesis: Representing Aesthetic Culture 4. Being in the Word: Of Grammatology and Mantic 5. Salmu: Representation in the Real 6. Decoys and Lures: Substitution and the Uncanny Double of the King 7. Presence and Repetition: The Altar of Tukulti-Ninurta 8. Conclusion: Image, Text, and Différance, or from Difference to Différance Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIraqi UN Ambassador and former opposition leader Hamid al-Bayati provides first-hand information on the meetings and discussions that led the United States and United Kingdom to move from inaction to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.Trade Review"Al-Bayati (Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations) is a true insider who was heavily involved in negotiations with the US-led coalition government after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Al-Bayati's intellectual prowess, deeply rooted love for the Iraqi people, and practical political experiences make him uniquely qualified to write this narrative of events leading to the regime's fall. . . . Al-Bayati exhaustively reports minutes of meetings and intense negotiations involving actors whose behind-the-scenes decisions determined the outcomes most observers take for granted. . . . This book is invaluable to understanding Iraqi politics. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *

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Book SynopsisScheherazade's Feasts presents over a hundred recipes for the beverages, meals, and sweets of the medieval Islamic world. Part cookbook and part culinary history, this book contextualizes Arab cuisine in a rich tapestry of trade and conquests, royal tables, and poetic praise of fine food.Trade Review"Scheherazade's Feast: Foods of the Medieval Arab World is [a] fascinating glimpse into how medieval Arabians ate, and the recipes are as relevant today as they were in the medieval period. Salloum, Salloum, and Elias have managed to preserve the best of Arabian cuisine for generations to come." * Samaya Borom, Parergon *"From the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, when Baghdad was the grandest city in the world and Moorish Spain was a beacon of civilization, all cookbooks were written in Arabic. The Salloums have done a wonderful job of bringing this age of splendor and luxury to life and rendering the party dishes of a thousand years ago in all their fragrant glory." * Charles Perry, translator of A Baghdad Cookery Book *Table of ContentsNote on Translation Introduction AppetizersGreen Olive Spread Labnah with Chopped Greens and Walnuts Fried Eggs with Vinegar and Spices Fava Bean Salad Fava Beans with Yogurt and Garlic Spicy Chard and Fava Bean Dip Fava Bean Dip with Fennel and Cumin Tangy Eggplant Stir-Fry Seared Eggplant with Walnuts Pickled Onions Honeyed Carrots in Rosewater Cauliflower with Tahini-Walnut Sauce Hummus with Ground Nuts Sauteed Spinach with Garlic and Coriander Cold Roasted Chicken with Almonds and Pomegranate Seeds Cold Roasted Chicken with Lime and Cucumber Herbed Chicken Salad An Almond-Mustard Condiment Herb Sauce for FishSoupsCold Yogurt and Cucumber Soup Spiced Lamb and Fava Bean Soup Hearty Lamb and Chickpea Soup Chickpea and Miso Soup Aromatic Soup with Rice and Pomegranate Seeds Squash and Lentil Soup Meatball and Chickpea SoupEntrees LambLamb and Prune Tajine Spiced Lamb with Walnuts Lamb and Sour Apple Tajine Lentil Stew with Lamb and Swiss Chard Spiced Lamb and Lentil Stir-fry with Rice Browned Lamb with Saffron-Cinnamon Rice Lamb and Rice Porridge Lamb and Cabbage Tajine Lamb with Honeyed Onions Lamb with Greens and Clockwise-Stirred Yogurt Fried Bananas with Lamb and Hazelnuts Spiced Lamb and Fennel Tajine Sweet and Sour Lamb and Vegetable Stew Savory Meatballs and Cubed Lamb with Coriander Spice-Infused Cucumbers with Lamb and Walnuts Asparagus Wrapped in Lamb Ground Meat with Fried Halloumi Cheese and Spices The Caliph's Wife's Eggplant and Lamb Stir-fry Stuffed Eggplant Lamb and Vegetables with Spiced Onion Sauce Garlicky Spinach with Buttered Lamb and Chickpeas Spiced Lamb with Honeyed Apricots Sweet and Meaty Lamb and Date Kebabs Spicy Lamb Sausage Fried Lamb Turnovers Two Ways Hearty Stuffed Tripe with Lamb, Chickpeas, and Rice Aromatic Couscous with Veal and Vegetables Stuffed Dumplings in YogurtChickenHerbed Chicken Pita Rolls Chicken Stew with Pomegranate Juice and Pumpkin Savory and Sour Chicken, Lamb, and Egg Casserole Grilled Chicken in Yogurt Fried Meatballs with Pistachios and Honey Pistachio-Stuffed Roasted Chicken Chicken and Vegetables in a Tart and Creamy Sauce Tangy Sumac Chicken Saffron Chicken Tajine Zesty Almond and Chicken Pie Aromatic Chicken with Fried and Boiled Eggs over Toasted Pita Creamy Stew with Meat and VegetablesSeafoodGinger-Fried Shrimp for Lent Fried Fish with Garlic and Coriander Sauce Poached and Baked Fish with Fennel Fried Fish with Tahini and Onions Walnut-Stuffed Roasted Fish Summertime Fried Fish Fried Salmon with Raisins and AlmondsVegetarianSweet Tooth Rice and Yogurt Sauteed Aphrodisiac Greens Garlicky Yogurt and Chard Spiced Chickpea Fritters Gardener's Vegetable TartDesserts Basic Dessert ElementsSugar Syrup Honey Syrup Rosewater and Orange Blossom Custard CreamDessertsSugared Lettuce Honey and Almond Candy Chewy Fruit and Nut Candy) Muḥammad's Wedding Cookies Fried Rosewater Melts Honeyed Sesame Cakes Adult Butter Cookies Caliph's Favorite Shortbread Sesame-Nut Shortbread Hazelnut Filo Dough Cake Fried Dough with Pistachios and Rosewater Honey-Cream Crunch Seven-Layer Ricotta Cake Almond Fingers Fried Dough Bites Crunchy Beaded Honey Squares Crispy Lattice Fritters Fried Stuffed Pancakes Sweet Cheese Fritters Honey-Dipped Almond-Stuffed Rings Braided Fried Dough with Spices Aromatic Nut Cigars Almond-Sealed Stuffed Cigars Fried Nut TurnoversBeveragesHot Sweet Rosewater Drink Lemonade Aromatic Honey and Grape Juice Drink for Wintertime Zesty Mint Drink Hot Aromatic Honeyed Milk Pomegranate Seed Smoothie Sour Apple Syrup Cold Apricot Drink for Breaking a FastSample Menus for Special OccasionsA Dinner During Ramadan (Breaking the Fast) A Dinner During Lent A Dinner During Passover A Dinner for Christmas A Dinner Feast Such as That Held in the Caliph's CourtRegal Recipes for Stuffed Meats Measurements and Metric Conversion Chart Tools and Ingredients Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn The Battle for Algeria Jennifer Johnson reinterprets one of the most violent wars of decolonization: the Algerian War (1954-1962). Johnson argues that the conflict was about who—France or the National Liberation Front (FLN)—would exercise sovereignty of Algeria. The fight between the two sides was not simply a military affair; it also involved diverse and competing claims about who was positioned to better care for the Algerian people''s health and welfare. Johnson focuses on French and Algerian efforts to engage one another off the physical battlefield and highlights the social dimensions of the FLN''s winning strategy, which targeted the local and international arenas. Relying on Algerian sources, which make clear the centrality of health and humanitarianism to the nationalists'' war effort, Johnson shows how the FLN leadership constructed national health care institutions that provided critical care for the population and functioned as a protostate. MoreoverTrade Review"[A] strong, insightful book packed with original and fascinating detail and fresh in its positioning both within the literature on Algeria and the literature on the history of human rights, health care, and humanitarianism. The book succeeds particularly well in bringing to the fore how care for the bodies of Algerians became a site of competition and a means of statebuilding during the war. Scholars from a variety of humanities and social science fields will find its lessons illuminating." * Journal of North African Studies *"With her careful scholarship Johnson focuses on how the Front de libe'ration nationale (FLN) sought international support for its campaign through the rhetoric-though limited practice-of healthcare for Algerians, as well as diplomatic missions to the newly independent nations of the Arab world, Asia, and, specifically, the United Nations . . . Johnson's narrative is absorbing. Her book draws on interviews and archives to enrich the complexity of the existing narrative and is a further contribution to understanding the war from the perspective of winning over world opinion." * French Studies *"Jennifer Johnson's The Battle for Algeria provides a painstakingly researched and richly descriptive analysis of the strategic importance of medicine, human rights, and humantarianism for Algerian nationalists' evolving and expanding political agencies, and the internationalization of their struggle during the war for independence." * Journal of Global South Studies *"Jennifer Johnson's excellent new book augments the internationalization of our understanding of the Algerian war by showing how important health and humanitarianism were to it. With archivally rooted contributions on how Algerian nationalists built a health program and how international humanitarian concern-including the Red Crescent-played an important role in arguments for sovereignty, The Battle for Algeria breaks new ground. Appeals to the need for health care and complaints over the violation of the human body were frequent, Johnson powerfully demonstrates, in the war for public opinion that ultimately shifted the conflict." * Samuel Moyn, Harvard University, author of Christian Human Rights *"The Battle for Algeria is a powerful critique of existing Algerian historiography that successfully integrates Middle East and North African studies into global or international history." * Benjamin Brower, University of Texas at Austin *"The Battle for Algeria demonstrates the ways in which sovereignty had been reconfigured in the postwar era-and how the techniques for achieving it were refashioned. In so doing, Jennifer Johnson reveals a very good deal about the international system as well as Algeria's particular struggle." * Roland Burke, La Trobe University *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Note on Sources, Names, and Spellings Introduction Chapter 1. The Long Road to War Chapter 2. Medical Pacification and the Sections Administratives Spécialisées Chapter 3. "See Our Arms, See Our Physicians": The Algerian Health-Services Division Chapter 4. Internationalizing Humanitarianism: The Algerian Red Crescent Chapter 5. The International Committee of the Red Cross in Algeria Chapter 6. Global Diplomacy and the Fight for Self-Determination Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisMerges original sources with the latest in military theory to examine Muhammad's military strengths and weaknesses. Incorporating military, political, and economic analyses, Russ Rodgers focuses on Muhammad's use of insurgency warfare in seventh-century Arabia. He provides battlefield maps and explores the supply and logistic problems that would have plagued any military leader at the time.Trade ReviewAn excellent analysis of Muhammad as a general, placing his battles within the context of military history, and a good introduction to the life of the founder of Islam." - David Cook, author of Understanding Jihad"Provides an essential understanding to those wanting to know the history that shapes modern insurgencies." - Maj. Christopher Johnson, U.S. Army, policy advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense.

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Book SynopsisThis text takes the reader through the Hebrew Bible to examine ancient Israel's ideas of the body, the unstable role of gender, the deployment of sexuality and the cultural practices of the time. It looks at the logic of ancient social meanings and contrasts them with contemporary social theory.Trade ReviewThis book is a significant contribution to contemporary Christian theology. * Reviews in Religion and Theology *Jon Berquist's thesis is strikingly original and a significant contribution to the field. He sifts carefully through an impressive range of materials so that the ubiquity of the social system emerges with clarity and force. Hence, the reader is provided with an inner logic to ancient social meanings. -- David M. Gunn * A. A. Bradford Professor of Religion, Texas Christian University *Using the human body as the lens for his examination, Berquist has uncovered some very interesting characteristics of ancient Israelite society. While serious Bible students will find this carefully researched study quite enlightening, it is written in a way that even the nonprofessional will find interesting. * Bible Today *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Whole Body: Israelite Perceptions of Corporeal Existence 2. Sexuality and Fertility: Constructing the Household of the Body 3. Boundaries of the Body: Sexuality outside the Household 4. The Stages of the Body: Constructions of the Aging Process 5. Foreign Bodies: Reactions against the Stranger 6. The Body of the Temple: Priests and the Religious Regulation of the Body 7. Intercourse with the World: Hellenism and the Incorporation of Judaism Notes References Subject Index Index of Biblical Citations

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Powerful and illuminating." * Prospect Magazine *"The Other Air Force stands as a helpful study on the subtle ways U.S. government agencies try to advance their own agendas under the pretext of development and community support. By shedding light on the resourcefulness and creativity of those who work within the circumscribed boundaries of such projects, it also precludes simplistic classifications of such people as native informants working on behalf of their oppressors, highlighting instead the everyday resistance that soft-psy media inevitably provokes." * The New Inquiry *"Sienkiewicz’s ability to pack both granular history and broad theory into a concise package makes his book a rare treat among academic titles." * The Bridge *"The Other Air Force is one of the best books I've read in years. Matt Sienkiewicz's close look at the hard-core sell of 'soft-psy media' details how the U.S. persuades invaded, occupied, and colonized peoples to make media that advances America's interests and yet still appears to be under local control. Sienkiewicz examines carefully who is really behind the curtain, pulling strings and pressing buttons in the US theatre of soft-psy media. All is not as it seems when creating the American dream." -- Mohammed Omer * award winning journalist and author of Shell-Shocked: On the Ground Under Israel's Gaza Assault *"Interesting and deeply relevant … Its purview is quite remarkable - taking in media of all kinds across the Middle East." * The New Arab * "The Other Air Force is a timely and extremely valuable contribution to the fields of Media Studies and International Relations. It should be read by students, scholars, journalists, policy makers, and anyone else interested in understanding how media and politics are intertwined in the conflict zones of the Middle East." -- Dina Matar * author of What It Means to Be a Palestinian *"By way of fine-grained, field-based case studies of US-assisted Afghan and Palestinian media, The Other Air Force recasts development communication through the prism of media assistance, and in doing so, demonstrates how global US hegemony goes hand in hand with local creativity. Made concrete by an appealing cast of mediators, enforcers, and cultural conmen, Sienkiewicz’s notion of 'Soft-Psy Media' is a welcome addition to the theoretical and pedagogical toolkits of global communication studies." -- Marwan Kraidy * author of The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World *"The Other Air Force is innovatively conceptualized and meticulously researched. Anyone interested in media, culture, and politics in the Middle East after 9/11 will be turning to this book for years to come." -- Aswin Punathambekar * University of Michigan-Ann Arbor *"With striking case studies and scient attention to the complex interplay of top-down strategy and policies, bottom-up resistance and negotiations along with labor, gender, and geopolitics, Sienkiewicz’s book offers an indispensable guide for researchers in communication and Middle Eastern studies." -- Ipek A. Celik Rappas * Film International *"In provoking such questions and by introducing new interpretations of U.S. media strategy in the region, Sienkiewicz’s book is a welcome contribution to the fields of Middle East studies, media and cultural studies, as well as postcolonial studies." * Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Soft-Psy Media as U.S. Strategy Chapter 1: Shopping for Grocers: The Origins of Middle Eastern Soft-Psy Media Chapter 2: Our Men in Kabul and Bethlehem: Saad Mohseni and Raed Othman Chapter 3: Kind of Con Men: Self-Interest, Soft-Psy Media, and Resistance Chapter 4: Soft-Psy Media Under Cover: The Question of Gender Chapter 5: Mediating Mediations: Meta-Media, the Middle East, and Soft-Psy Strategy Conclusion: The Trajectory of Soft-Psy Media from 9/11 to Today Notes Bibliography Index

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