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The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs To Know (2012)

by James L. Gelvin(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

019989177X (ISBN13: 9780199891771)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Oxford

review 1: James Gelvin clearly has incredible knowledge about the Middle East and about the Arab uprisings. I did learn quite a bit from reading this book, but I can attribute that mostly to preexisting (and large) gaps in my knowledge. Overall, this book was poorly researched and opinionated. The question-and-answer format leads the reader, instead of laying out timelines and facts in an unbiased fashion to inform him or her. Nearly all of Gelvin's cited resources are Websites, almost all accessed in a brief three-month period (a summer break in the academic calendar, perhaps?). In other places, especially in the final chapters, Gelvin repeatedly makes unsupported claims that lack citations entirely. This book makes a suitable basic introduction to the topic, but I would not ... morerecommend it for academic research or for readers with more than a cursory understanding of the Middle East conflicts and uprisings.
review 2: Gelvin’s The Modern Middle East: A History has been incredibly helpful to me in understanding how the modern world has shaped the Middle East. Modern concepts of progress, state power, and economics have all made a big impact, coming together in what has been called the “interventionist-redistributionist” model that prescribes a government that actively manages the economy and an extensive welfare state. Gelvin believes that the major factor in the Arab uprisings has been their governments’ revisions of this model through opening up markets and reducing welfare expenditures. These reforms reflect the influence of neoliberalism, in vogue since the reforms of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and others.The book is formatted as a Q&A, covering both the region in general and the specific countries where the uprisings have occurred. Gelvin is a talented writer with a good sense of humor, and the book is quite informative. He will probably need to come out with future editions of it as things change in the region. less

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