Arab Political Thought: Past and Present

Explores the many facets of Arab political thought from the nineteenth century to the present day. ‘This excellent study is comprehensive, covering a variety of writers from diverse parts of the Arab region whose ideas range from pan-Arabism to more localized identities …This is an important book for students of the modern Arab world and indeed for anyone concerned more broadly with nationalism and modernization.’ ‘Corm has produced a magisterial compendium of the Arab intelligentsia and their contributions to Arab thought right up to the Arab Spring.’

''Draws a comprehensive and detailed framework of Arab political thought... [Arab Political Thought] will help students of International Relations escape the ''Orientalist'' trap that creates a stereotype regarding the shared wisdom of the Middle East.''

''Eloquent and... profoundly original.'' ‘Not since Albert Hourani’s Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age has there been such a comprehensive and accessible monograph as Georges Corm’s erudite account. Focussing on twentieth-century Arabic and French literature, this is a welcome update written by a leading Arab intellectual and economist.’ ''An invaluable account of the intellectual currents within the Arab world and beyond, bringing this rich and seminal scholarship closer to us here in the West. Indispensable for those interested in the politics of the region and its underlying fabric of ideas.'' ''An overview of the richness and complexity of Arab thought, deconstructing the dominant narratives that reduce the Arab peoples to vacuous, religious and ahistorical binaries. A must-read.'' This book demonstrates the vitality of Arab political thought and its major controversies. It shows that the key players involved, far from being constrained by a theological-political straitjacket, have often demonstrated strong critical thinking when tackling religion and philosophy, anthropology and politics. Setting these thinkers and their works within two centuries of upheaval in the Arab world, Georges Corm demonstrates how Arab critical thought has been marginalised by powerful external forces: the military, the academy and the media. In its place has risen a hegemonic Islamist thought, used cannily by certain Arab regimes and their Western protectors. Closely tracing the successive transformations of modernist Arab nationalism, Arab Political Thought offers a blueprint for understanding the libertarian Arab Spring, as well as the counter-revolutions and external interventions that have followed. This invaluable guide comprehensively distills the complexity of Arab intellectualism. Any return to peace in the region will rely heavily upon recognition of the powerful dynamics underlying this school of thought, which is both critical and profane, and a far cry from the outdated politico-religious image it has acquired.

• | Author: Georges Corm
• | Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
• | Publication Date: Jan 09, 2020
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781849048163
• | ISBN-10: 1849048169