Published: 20 March 2017
ISBN: 9780718193126
Imprint: Penguin Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 560
RRP: $24.99

Categories:

Non-fiction prose

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The Egyptians: A Radical Story

Jack Shenker

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The essential book about Egypt and radical politics.

Egypt is a nation in turmoil, caught in a cycle of revolution and counter-revolution. In The Egyptians: A Radical Story, Jack Shenker uncovers the historical roots of today's unrest and reveals a land divided between two irreconcilable political orders: authoritarian power and grassroots resistance. Challenging conventional analyses that focus only on the battle between Islamists and secular forces, he travels the Arab World's most populous country to explore other, far more important fault lines - the communities waging war against transnational corporations, the people subverting long-established gender norms, the workers seizing control of their factories, and the novelists, graffiti artists and back-alley DJs defying their repressive regime.

Showing that the revolution was no isolated episode but rather part of an ongoing struggle against state authority and economic exclusion, Shenker explains why recent events are so threatening to elites both inside Egypt and abroad. While Egyptian rulers seek to eliminate dissent, seeded within the politics of the young generation are forms of democracy, social justice and resistance that could yet change the world.

Published: 20 March 2017
ISBN: 9780718193126
Imprint: Penguin Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 560
RRP: $24.99

Categories:

Non-fiction prose

Share…

About the author

Jack Shenker

Jack Shenker is an award-winning reporter on radical politics and protest whose work has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. In his mid-twenties he was appointed Egypt correspondent for the Guardian, covering the 2011 revolution and Arab uprisings, which led to his critically acclaimed first book, The Egyptians: A Radical Story. He writes regularly for a wide range of publications, including Granta, the New York Times and the London Review of Books; his journalism has covered Gaza, Africa, Central Asia and the United States, as well as Britain and Europe, and has been translated into several languages. He is based in London.

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Praise for The Egyptians: A Radical Story

This is the deepest and most comprehensive account of Egypt's revolution in the English language, and it will set the agenda for debate throughout the Arab world
Paul Mason author of, Post Capitalism

A courageous writer who gives voice to the hopes and fears of the people of Egypt
Owen Jones

Inspirational, passionate, acutely clear-sighted . . . it tells stories that need to be told, and which have been widely ignored
George Arney, Independent

An impassioned account of a 'radical Egypt' waging battle against a power-hoarding state . . . Shenker has written what amounts to a contemporary history of injustice
Maria Golia, The Times Literary Supplement