Loved Egyptian Night: The Meaning of the Arab Spring

(Hardback)

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Loved Egyptian Night fundamentally reassesses the Arab Spring, debunking the stories the Western powers fed to the world. There is no doubt that the toppling of Ben Ali in Tunisia in January 2011 constituted a political revolution. Was the same ever really true of events in Egypt, Syria or Libya, countries with quite different social topographies The bitter ends of these uprisings were inscribed in their misunderstood beginnings, Hugh Roberts argues. Outside meddling ostensibly on behalf of these 'revolutions' has reduced Libya to anarchy and Syria to a devastating civil war now in its twelfth year. In Egypt, the Free Officers state has been fortified. After so much wishful thinking, what remains is the debris of a cynical pretension. The Americans and Europeans did not vainly strive to free the Egyptians or anyone else from authoritarian rule. Instead, they contrived to seal them up in it. The long oppression of these societies, Kiplings loved Egyptian night, is not going to be ended by Western power, it is guaranteed by it.

Reviews

Praise for The Battlefield -- :
Roberts is the perfect guide. * Independent *
Praise for Berber Government * : *
A tour de force, a major and valuable piece of scholarship. * Middle East Quarterly *
Roberts, a leading specialist, challenges prevailing interpretations of Algeria. * Foreign Affairs *

Author Bio

Hugh Roberts is Professor Emeritus of North African and Middle Eastern History at Tufts University. He lived in Cairo from 2001 to 2012 where he led the International Crisis Groups North Africa Project and began writing about the Arab Spring for the London Review of Books. His books include The Battlefield: Algeria 19882002.