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Pan-Arabism
The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad
Although Eqbal Ahmad's work spans a huge array of questions and countries, the theme of North-South, decolonization and its brutal legacies, runs throughout this long collection of his essays. Ahmad's close relationship with a host of revolutionary/national liberation movements allowed him to reframe the major problems of the post-WWII era in terms decolonization, national liberation struggles, and counterinsurgency, rather than the bipolar-world, superpower-based framework that characterized much Cold War thinking.
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Posted by homais at 04:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Oil Monarchies
Gregory Gause is one of the best scholars of the Gulf, and this book is a good example of why.
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From Arab Nationalism to OPEC
This book examines the development of the US relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as it first developed, in the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations.
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Posted by dubaiwalla at 12:14 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair
Good examination of the history of pan-Arabism/Arab nationalism, from its earliest roots to its eventual demise as a viable political movement in the post-Nasser era. While he acknowledges the Ottoman-era writers that first broached some of these ideas, he (in contrast to some of the essays in the volume edited by Khalidi) casts Arab nationalism as a specifically twentieth century (post WWI) movement that was most heavily influenced philosophically by German nationalist writers of the 18th/19th century and had its true genesis in the works of Sati' al-Husri, writing in post-WWI Iraq.
Posted by Tamerlane at 08:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Pan-Arabism before Nasser: Egyptian Power Politics and the Palestine Question
Fascinating book, that while agreeing the pan-Arabism was indeed an organic movement, posits that in the immediate post-WW II era it was at least half-cynically manipulated by Egypt (in alliance with Saudi Arabia and a fragile Syria) as a propaganda tool to counter what were regarded as their primary foreign policy threats - Great Britain (then still a dominant player in the region) and the alliance of Hashemite Jordan (the strongest Arab power militarily at the time) and Iraq, then in detente with Turkey. Israel/Palestine in this analysis was only a very tertiary concern and for example even the 1948 Arab-Israeli War was pushed by Egypt, less because they expected to succeed (soberly, they did not, though they would have been pleased if they had), but more to divert Jordanian attention (in particular from Syria, which they claimed and threatened).
Posted by Tamerlane at 08:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939
Old-school book on "Arab" intellectual developments and intellectuals. Highly readable.
Posted by raf* at 06:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Arab Awakening
The Ur-tome of Arab nationalists, it is required reading for everyone interested in the MENA region, as its (nationalist) story and internal logic shape every contemporary discourse, be it secular or religious.
Posted by raf* at 06:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
