Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on historical analysis and his own participation in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Atef Shahat Said examines how limited reformist demands and the failure of Egyptians to fully grasp their clout reduced the revolution’s potential.
Trade Review“
Revolution Squared is an exciting book that presents a new and insightful framework for understanding the 2011 uprising in Egypt and its aftermath. Atef Shahat Said’s first-person narratives and astute sociological analysis offer a compelling perspective on the organization and
longue durée of the revolutionary process. This is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary uprisings, in Egypt and beyond.” -- Jessica Winegar, author of * Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt *
“Atef Shahat Said’s thoughtful book
Revolution Squared examines the hopes and disappointments of Egypt’s pro-democracy activists, theorizing revolution and counterrevolution alongside the activists’ own attempts to understand how they succeeded so dramatically in 2011 and were defeated so decisively in 2013.” -- Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Table of ContentsNote on Transliteration xii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction. Revolution as Lived Contingency 1
1. Prelude to Revolutionary Possibilities: Tahrir and Political Protest in Egypt 31
2. Peak of Revolutionary Possibilities: Squared I: How the Revolution Was “Bound” within Tahrir 57
3. Sovereignty in the Street: Popular Committees, Revolutionary Ambivalence, and Unrealized Power 87
4. The Two Souls of the Egyptian Revolution: Democratic Demands, Radical Strikes 112
5. Waning Revolutionary Possibilities: Squared II: Counterrevolutionary Coercion and Elections without Democratization 147
6. Square Zero: The State, Counterrevolutionary Paranoia, and the Withdrawal of Activists 178
Conclusion: Revolution as Experience 210
Appendix 1. Brief Timeline of the Egyptian Revolution, 2011–2018 227
Appendix 2. A Note on Positionality 231
Appendix 3. Notes on Methods, or How I Conducted Historical Ethnography of a Revolution 235
Appendix 4. Major Political Coalitions in Egypt, 2000–2010 251
Notes 263
References 289
Index 325
