Additional information
by Fawaz A. Gerges (Author)
How the conflict between political Islamists and secular-leaning nationalists has shaped the modern Middle East
In Making the Arab World, Fawaz Gerges, one of the world's leading authorities on the Middle East, describes how the clash between pan-Arab nationalism and pan-Islamism has shaped the history of the region from the 1920s to the present. He tells this story through an unprecedented dual biography of Egyptian president and Arab nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) and another of the twentieth-century Arab world's most influential figures--Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood and the father of many branches of radical political Islam. Based on a decade of research, including in-depth interviews with many leading figures in the story, Making the Arab World is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the turmoil engulfing the Middle East, from civil wars to Al-Qaeda and ISIS.Back Jacket
"The modern history of Egypt and the Middle East has been profoundly shaped by the interaction between two deeply rooted forces--nationalism and political Islam. Focusing on two outsize personalities who personified these currents, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Sayyid Qutb, and drawing on a decade of research, including many interviews, Fawaz Gerges shows the complex, not always antagonistic, relationship between these powerful and enduring political realities."--William B. Quandt, author of Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict since 1967
"Fawaz Gerges is our most perceptive and level-headed analyst of the rise of Muslim extremism. In a field strewn with glib generalizations and sometimes colored by mere bigotry, he insists on giving us context and concentrating on specifics, which he presents in a lively and engaging style. Here he steps back to reveal the full sweep of a key conflict fought throughout the Middle East over the past seventy years between a secular-leaning, authoritarian nationalism and a theocratic irredentism. This is an essential book."--Juan Cole, author of The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation Is Changing the Middle East
"Drawing on decades of interviews, Fawaz Gerges gives us a novel, nuanced, and revealing picture of the relationship between the Egyptian nationalist hero Gamal Abdel Nasser and his one-time ally and ultimate nemesis in the Muslim Brotherhood Sayyid Qutb. The book offers a fresh interpretation of the modern histories of both the Arab nationalist and Islamist movements--one that will profoundly reshape conventional wisdom about politics in the Arab world."--Lisa Anderson, former president of the American University in Cairo
"A major achievement, this impeccably researched book contributes significantly to our understanding of Arab and Islamic politics, supplementing and correcting much of it."--James Piscatori, Australian National University
"Making the Arab World is distinctive not only in its much-needed focus on the interaction between Nasserism and Egyptian Islamism, but also in the degree to which the author had access to the views of people who were and are directly involved in the events."--John Voll, author of Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World
Author Biography
Fawaz A. Gerges is professor of international relations and Emirates Chair in Contemporary Middle East Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including ISIS: A History (Princeton), The New Middle East, and The Far Enemy. Twitter @FawazGerges
