The Arab Revolution: Ten Lessons from the Democratic Uprising (Comparative Politics and International Studies) 1st Edition

by Jean-Pierre Filiu (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0199898299

ISBN-10: 0199898294

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When Mohammad Bouazizi sets himself on fire on December 17, 2010, he started a series of extraordinary events that spread across the Middle East with stunning rapidity. In less than a month, President Ben Ali fled Tunisia, ending a twenty-three year regime. Shortly thereafter, on 11 February 2011, President Mubarak of Egypt stepped down after nearly thirty years in power.

In The Arab Revolution, Jean-Pierre Filiu offers a concise but sweeping account of the earth-shattering revolts that began in Tunis and continue today throughout the Middle East. Stressing the deep historical roots of the events, Filiu organizes the book around ten lessons that illuminate both the uprisings in particular and the region in general. He shows, for instance, that these movements didn't erupt out of thin air--Arabs have been fighting for their rights for more than a generation. The author sheds light on the role of youth--whose anger is power, he notes, and who embrace the message "tomorrow is yours, if you fight for it"--as well as the important role that social networks played in Tunisia and Egypt. Filiu also argues that in the aftermath, jihadists are in a difficult position, because the essentially peaceful grassroots protests in Tunisia and Egypt have undercut their message of violence and indeed have called into question their relevance. The book also reveals that, despite being somewhat overshadowed by the Arab uprising, Palestine remains the central concern throughout the Middle East.

By shining a light on these lessons rather than providing a strictly chronological account, Filiu provides a far richer and deeper portrait of the revolutionary movements sweeping the region--as well as an insightful look at life in the Middle East today.

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Editorial Reviews

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"Jean-Pierre Filiu's book provides a remarkable, in-depth analysis of the 'Arab spring,' putting it in perspective and exploring its long-term consequences. Thanks to his exceptional knowledge of the Middle East, Filiu has been able to grasp the meaning of this revolution and make it comprehensible for a wide readership."--Olivier Roy, author of Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways and Globalized Islam

"Few writers bring teh combination of diplomatic, policy-making, and scholary experience to analyzing the Arab revolutions as does Jean-Pierre Filiu. And none but him could have written such an authoritative and spot-on analysis of the causes, implications, and possible futures of these momentous events as the are unfolding. This book will be the gold standard against which the flood of soon-to-appear books on this subject will surely be measured."--Mark LeVine, author of Heavy Metal Islam, Professor of History, UC Irvine and Distinguished Visiting Professor, CMES Lund University

"With this timely, major book on the subject, we have the Arab revolution of 2011 recorded as a major event in world history. Filiu, the leading French authority on the politics of the Arab world, convincingly treats the Arab revolution, which has so far succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt, as a singular event whose consequences will unfold in the coming decads. The ten lessons capture the main import of this great event, and the appendices give the reader a flavor of its tenor. A book written with great verve and for the general public."--Said A. Arjomand, Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology & Director of of the Stony Brook Institute for Global Studies, State University of New York

"Filiu...has distilled a great deal of knowledge and sensitive and well-written analysis into this first take on the new Arab awakening." - Financial Times

"Filiu's timely, concise and authoritative book makes the complexities of the rapid political changes sweeping the region comprehensible, even for the most casual observer." --The National (Abu Dhabi)

About the Author

Jean-Pierre Filiu is Professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, and has held visiting professorships at both Columbia University and Georgetown University. His book The Apocalypse in Islam was awarded the main prize by the French History Association. His books on the Arab world have been published in a dozen languages.

Product details

Publisher : Oxford University Press; 1st edition (November 23, 2011)
Language: : English
Hardcover : 208 pages
ISBN-10 : 0199898294
ISBN-13 : 978-0199898299
Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
Dimensions : 8.5 x 0.9 x 3.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,183,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,298 in Middle Eastern History (Books)
- #2,664 in Non-US Legal Systems (Books)
- #2,746 in Comparative Politics

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Jessica A. Sheetz-Nguyen

Stimulating and provocative

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2013

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The Arab Revolution provides a brief but accessible historical overview to the recent events in the Middle East. I assigned this book to a class on "revolutions," just to see if we could find the threads that all social, political, and economic upheavals of this nature reveal. One of the best chapters is on social media because it opens our eyes to the communications revolution taking place right before our ears and eyes.

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Arthur Goldschmidt

Arab revolutions

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2012

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Filiu's book is up-to-date, concise, and very well written, and I would recommend it to non-specialist readers and policy-makers who need to know why the revolutions have occurred in the Arab world.

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Seth C

Very thoughful

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2013

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This book is a short examination of the themes behind the Arab spring from a unique perspective not found in the popular media about the events of Feb-Oct of 2011.

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Don't Read Much Fiction

The alliances within the revolution... never a lasting indicator

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2012

This was the first book I picked up on the Arab Spring and it turned out to be a good choice. The author, Jean-Pierre Filiu, had a jump start on most of the other titles coming out of the Arab Spring so his analysis covers only through late Spring, 2011.

Filiu writes in full alliance with the innocent public. He follows their stirrings towards revolt and revolution detailing numerous events throughout the middle east in the last few years. In some chapters, the author takes the time to recount a decades-old historical connection to the outburst of voices in recent events. Filiu reads the revolution as a cooperation between (intentional or not) the media, social networking, non-government organizations and masses of youth just beginning to overcome their fear.

The enemy was politics, internal and external. Filiu describes foreign powers as occupiers, and wholesale enablers of oppression. It is the same viewpoint that describes governments' reactions to Islamism as the problem and never Islamism itself. Having said that, Filiu describes the more extremist factions of Islam and their evolving political parties as being caught of guard. The 'revolution within the revolution' described how quickly Islamic parties had to evolve their platforms, and in some cases start from scratch, in appealing to the new liberalized standard (pg. 105).

Filiu's revolutionary alliance is supported through dozens of notes in the book. It's impossible to describe the force of the revolution without involving the internet army. For those who followed the revolution online, you'll be comforted to see how Filiu neatly compiles the events himself for you, using daily newspapers, online magazines, facebook pages, live camera feed information and pivot sites proven instrumental in crumbling the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt (which is where most of the book is focused). I can't imagine how any other author can write about the Arab Spring without referencing specific internet players as Filiu does.

Is this recounting informative? Yes. It is detailed and approaches the elements within the revolutions from ten specific 'lessons learned'. But what it can't do, and I don't think Filiu claims it will do, is give any insight on the future of the middle east. Revolutions are a sticky business. Their alliances break apart as soon as the regime is toppled and internal politics quickly becomes the next challenge. No one can specifically predict a revolution and in the same token, no one can reasonably suggest the perfect foreign policy in its aftermath. I think Filiu may be a little too glossy-eyed towards his protagonist, but then again it's hard not to be.

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Karim

A very useful overview

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2012

Jean-Pierre Filiu, a French scholar and arabist, has written extensively on Palestine. In this book, he aims at giving the general public an overview on the main elements of the Arab revolutions. While already a bit dated (it was written in the summer of 2011), it provides a very useful insight on the reality of these revolutions - whether they were driven by Facebook & Twitter, the role of political Islam, their leaderless nature. If you need a one-book introduction to the Arab revolutions, this is the one for you.

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