The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State [Paperback]

Halim Barakat (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0520084276 | ISBN-13: 978-0520084278

This wide-ranging examination of Arab society and culture offers a unique opportunity to know the Arab world from an Arab point of view. Halim Barakat, an expatriate Syrian who is both scholar and novelist, emphasizes the dynamic changes and diverse patterns that have characterized the Middle East since the mid-nineteenth century.
The Arab world is not one shaped by Islam, nor one simply explained by reference to the sectarian conflicts of a "mosaic" society. Instead, Barakat reveals a society that is highly complex, with many and various contending polarities. It is a society in a state of becoming and change, one whose social contradictions are at the root of the struggle to transcend dehumanizing conditions. Arguing from a perspective that is both radical and critical, Barakat is committed to the improvement of human conditions in the Arab world.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This scholarly work by sometime novelist Barakat (sociology, Georgetown Univ.) is a thorough, theoretical, yet practical analysis of Arab society. Barakat views the Arab world as a dynamic, evolving whole, containing immense diversity but still potentially cohesive and strong, provided the current pervasive alienation of its people can be overcome. Given the unwillingness of Arab regimes to truly reform their societies, Barakat sees only two options for the future of the Arab people: traditional religious (reactionary) vision or progressive secular vision. This book provides the Western reader with a wealth of historic and contemporary information, and is especially welcome because it presents an Arab view. It is not an easy book to absorb; it is well written but complex and can be dry and redundant at times. Still, this is a valuable addition to the body of works on the Arab world written in English by Arab scholars and will be a useful reference/textbook for Arab studies and comparative sociology courses. Recommended for academic libraries and others with large collections on the Middle East. --Ruth K. Baacke, Bellingham P.L., Wash
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A look at Arab culture by Barakat (Sociology/Georgetown Univ.), an expatriate Syrian. Barakat's vision is that of the nahda, or Arab ``renaissance'': ``How is it possible to achieve unity, democracy, secularism, and social justice in a society burdened with fragmentation, authoritarianism, traditionalism, religious fundamentalism, patriarchy, erosion of a sense of shared civil society, pyramidal social class structure, and dependency?'' While he supplies no easy answers, the author does offer a provocative discussion of Arab phenomena--for example, in his view of religion as including an ``alienating'' component, and in his dismissal of it as a ``revolutionary or transformative movement'' because, he says, it subjugates believers and merely establishes a new elite in place of the old. Central to Barakat's view of the ``single, overarching society'' of the Arab world is the idea that this world is in a state of continual change--contradicting Western Orientalist views of it as static. Barakat loses few opportunities to browbeat Orientalist scholars but his rhetoric is neither so new--Edward Said routed the Orientalists a decade ago, and better- -nor so eloquent that it goes much beyond ideological ornamentation; moreover, when Barakat belabors Western Orientalist scholars for their lack of fieldwork, he reveals his own reliance on texts. He winds up his discussion with a knowledgeable, essentially political, typology of Arab literature, and with a discussion of 20th-century Arab thought. Underneath the rhetoric here, there's an erudite but hardly revolutionary summation of the state of the Arab world. A well- informed study, then, but one that's agenda-heavy. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (October 14, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520084276
• ISBN-13: 978-0520084278
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #726,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Arab World vs. the Arab Mind!, October 21, 2009

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arabia-interculture.com "arabia-interculture.com" (Germany) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State (Paperback)

Someone who had read the "Arab Mind" of Raphael Patai, has to read this book also. This book elaborates the social-cultural devolpment and psychology of the Arab Region through different prespectives. Although Halim Barakat sounds very "arabic-emptionalized" in some conclusions and concepts, his book offers a possible answer of the big question: WHY they (Arab People, wherever they exist) think and act in this way, but also WHY people in different cultures think and act in different way. Very intersting concepts and hypothesis for new thories, which could be useful for cross-cultural researchers in general.

5 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book, accurate explaination, March 6, 2003

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"[e-mail]" (Lebanon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State (Paperback)

This book explains why Raphael Patai's book "The Arab Mind" is wrong and stereotyped.
Barakat explains here everything accurately. A must read!

3 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book, accurate explaination, March 6, 2003

By 

"[e-mail]" (Lebanon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State (Paperback)

This book explains why Raphael Patai's book "The Arab Mind" is wrong and stereotyped.
Barakat explains here everything accurately. A must read!