Generation Freedom: The Middle East Uprisings and the Remaking of the Modern World – Journalistic Insight into Sectarian Conflicts and Cultural Divides

by Bruce Feiler

"Feiler’s combination of journalism, commentary and self-discoverytells the reader volumes about humankind.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution onAbraham BruceFeiler, the bestselling author of Walking theBible and Abraham,examines the biblical and historical underpinnings of the Muslim world'spresent-day uprisings. As conflicts rock the Middle East, Feilerreturns to the region to explore how the sectarian and political conflicts in Libya,Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Israel, and Palestine represent a collision betweenmodern-day political tensions, centuries of deeply ingrained religioustraditions, and deeply entrenched cultural divides. Joining the ranks of ThomasFriedman and Fareed Zakaria,Feiler offers a book of powerful, transformativeinsight, uniquely illuminating a region in turmoil whose problems have longbeen clouded in confusion.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Social Justice, Politics

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 28, 2011

About the author

BRUCE FEILER is one of America’s most popular voices on contemporary life. He is the author of six consecutive New York Times bestsellers; the presenter of two prime-time series on PBS; and the inspiration for the drama COUNCIL OF DADS on NBC. Bruce’s two TED Talks have been viewed more than two million times. Employing a firsthand approach to his work, Bruce is known for living the experiences he writes about. His work combines timeless wisdom with timely knowledge turned into practical, positive messages that allow people to live with more meaning, passion, and joy. His new book, LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS: Mastering Change at Any Age, describes his journey across America, collecting hundreds of life stories, exploring how we can navigate the growing number of life transitions with greater purpose and skill.

For more than a decade, Bruce has explored the intersection of families, relationships, health, and happiness. His book THE SECRETS OF HAPPY FAMILIES collects best practices from some of the country’s most creative minds. The book was featured on World News, GMA, and TODAY and excerpted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Parade. THE COUNCIL OF DADS describes how, faced with one of life’s greatest challenges, he asked six friends to support his young daughters. The book was profiled in PEOPLE, USA Today, and Time and was the subject of a CNN documentary hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Since 2001, Bruce has been one of the country’s preeminent thinkers about the role of spirituality in contemporary life. WALKING THE BIBLE describes his 10,000-mile journey retracing the Five Books of Moses through the desert. (“An instant classic,” Washington Post). The book spent a year and a half on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into fifteen languages.

ABRAHAM recounts his search for the shared ancestor of the monotheistic religions. (“Exquisitely written,” Boston Globe). WHERE GOD WAS BORN describes his trek visiting biblical sites throughout Israel, Iraq, and Iran. (“Bruce Feiler is a real-life Indiana Jones,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution). AMERICA’S PROPHET is the groundbreaking story of the influence of Moses on American history. THE FIRST LOVE STORY is a journey across four continents exploring how Adam and Eve shaped our deepest feelings about relationships. (“A miraculous thing—the literary equivalent of breathing new life into a figure of clay,” New York Times Book Review; “Feiler’s best work yet,” Publishers Weekly).

A native of Savannah, Georgia, Bruce lives in Brooklyn with wife, Linda Rottenberg, and their identical twin daughters.

Reviews

[Osama · Rating 3 out of 5]

...

[Christy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel bad giving this book a bad review because the author clearly has his heart in the right place, but nonetheless, I will. The thesis is poorly argued, the metaphors are overly simplistic, and I learned absolutely nothing about the Arab Spring that I didn't already know.

[Paige Zalewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been wanting to read more nonfiction, specifically related to the Middle East spanning from the Arab Spring until current day. This was a great book to start out with. It was written in 2011, which alone makes it fascinating because it is written without the context of everything that has happened since. It focuses heavily on Egypt and not the other countries involved in Arab Spring, but gave a lot of insight into what was happening, plus I loved the tie ins with the religions to the region. The writing was engaging the whole way through, and only took me two days to read. I look forward to learning more!

[Racha Gh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very naive and assumptive.

[Mushky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deepened my understanding and widened my perspective on the Arab Spring. However, there were some holes in the author's knowledge of the Bible.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a close-to-perfect book for someone like me who wanted a brief history and analysis of what was occurring in Egypt during the early days of the Arab spring. Now more books are coming out with even more in-depth knowledge and analysis I look forward to reading those as well (such as The Struggle for Egypt by Steven Cook). I thought initially I would be bothered by the author's constant reference to the Bible but he doesn't prostelyze and how can one talk about the Middle East/Egypt without referencing the Bible? He also mentions the Koran. One particularly useful quote was when he said "This time Pharaoh is the one who was kicked out of Egypt. Moses is the one who stayed" (pg. 54). Think about that for a few seconds. What a powerful analogy, it makes perfect sense!
I think the most insightful part of this book was reading about his interview with the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Biltagy because it gave the organization a more human face. I also found the interviews with the activists such as Ayman Nour and Ethar El-Katatney, youth activists. I so admire them and wish them the very best, I sincerely hope they do not get shut out of the constitutional planning and other decisions concerning the government. I am confident they will not allow that to happen anyway.
The author then diverts from Egypt a bit to talk about his experience visiting the Middle East immediately after 9/11. At first it seems random but it connects to the sometimes tense relationship between Christians (specifically the Copts which are a Christian sect) and Muslims in Egypt. He describes Jerusalem and a powerful intermingling of the faiths. “Thousands of Muslims streamed through the flagstone streets to gather atop what they call the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount, the home of the third-holiest mosque in Islam. Down below, hundreds of Jews gathered at the Western Wall, the holiest spot in Judaism. Up above, Christians mingled on the Mount of Olives in the spectacular churches that mark Jesus’ last steps. In Jerusalem, any prayer made in the direction of one of these holy sites will by geography encompass another of these sites. You can’t separate the religions” (pg. 83), that is the scenario around the world. The religions cannot and should not be separated. We coexist and the author thinks (and based on reading this one book I would agree) that the leaders of the New Egypt will figure out a way to keep the peace between religions.
If you’ve read the book you may find my favorite quote an obvious choice. It’s at the very end. “The cries of those young people in the squares across the Middle East were their own Facebook friend request to the rest of the world. And like all such requests, you don’t really have to be close to the other person to accept. You just have to have a positive, warmly inclined, friend-like relationship, where you wish them happy birthday, keep up with their musings, their status changes, their photos from the beach, and occasionally ‘like’ what they have to say or offer a witty retort. Maybe the Middle East uprisings were a Facebook Revolution after all. They were a massive generation-wide Facebook friend request from a people as enamored of freedom as we are [….]And in that way in which the Internet tries to make things easy, this request comes with two helpful options: Confirm or not now. The choice is ours” (pg. 143). To further the Facebook analogy. Reading this book was like seeing that the author (whom let’s say I was already friend with) “is now friends with Generation Freedom” and then deciding that I too should friend Generation Freedom since I have a civil relationship with them and maybe I can improve that relationship. I have sent the friendship request, what will you do?

[Mason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps it’s silly to expect some sort of definitive account of the Arab Spring when, for all practical purposes, it’s a revolution still in the making. Still, I expected better than this shoddy, opportunistic lightweight of a non-fiction novel. The actual nature of this revolution is only addressed in the last chapter—what precedes it is a milquetoast mess of an attempt to bend the events of the revolution to the author’s own purposes. Feiler’s interested almost exclusively in the religious aspect of these events, which is fine, but he has nothing to SAY about them—or at least, nothing he hasn’t said in his previous works, Abraham and Walking the Bible. Feiler seems to think so as well—there are long, interminable passages where he does nothing more than paraphrase those books. Even on the most basic typographical level, it fails; Feiler and co were so desperate to rush this thing to press that they let at least four or five major spelling or grammatical mistakes slip by. There are a few interesting anecdotes, some intriguing discourse on the media’s role in these events, and, well, that’s about it. That is, unless you want a CliffsNotes version of his old stuff. A missed opportunity if ever there was one.

[Hebah Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dad mailed me this book via Amazon after seeing a review on Fareed Zakaria GPS (CNN). I'm pretty sure that's his favorite show.

Feiler did a good job. I think reading it so close to its release date makes it super cool since Feiler is referencing interviews and current events that are very clear in my mind and that I remember watching as they were happening. He gives a unique perspective to the events surrounding Islam and the Arab world over the last 10 years. It is a wonderful perspective on the Egyptian Revolution with the little humanizing stories that really bring out the unique and inspiring nature of the uprisings. The events that unfolded this past January in Tahrir square are related to the world at large, 9/11, and the death of Osama Bin Laden. Its a short read, but packed with a lot of information, retelling history in an analytical way and weaving together a big picture in the media has blinded us from seeing.

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It provides a fresh narrative of the Middle East uprising, more in line with how the people on the ground in Egypt perceived it. Feiler leaves the ball in the court of the West, in particular the younger generation emerging here - which is my generation. I appreciated this fact because it is true, we have been let down by our own leaders, our parents generations, and our current leadership who stand on the assumption that we are too different to change the status quo yet too strategically and economically tied to regimes to demand change. Feiler highlights the fact that the status quo is evolving, the way will be hard and full of challenges, and that we all must make the decision to collectively decide to refuse to be tolerant to intolerance.

[Kandice Newren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for a work book club, and I found it lacking. I was thinking it would be about the Arab Spring, and it kind of was. This book was written from the religious perspective, and it's a short book (about 150 pages). The author kind of glosses over what happens, and instead focuses on Moses and Abraham among three religions. There are five chapters, and the last one is the one that focuses most specifically the actual events of the revolutions. That's another thing, it's supposed to be about Arab Spring, which is about SEVERAL revolutions, and it focuses almost exclusively on Egypt. For a brief synopsis/overview of the event, this is a bad book to read. If you like discussing religion this would be a good book, but if you're looking for a history of events, skip it.

[Sammy Tiranno · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent, quick-hit read that argues a reason to be optimistic about Western/Middle Eastern relations in the wake of the Arab Spring. This book focuses primarily on Egypt and the events that occurred at Tahrir Square. It promotes the connections between the three Abrahamic religions and their similar yearnings for freedom; exemplified for all by the story of Moses and Pharaoh. It doesn't delve into specifics of any uprisings outside of Egypt, but broad coverage should not be expected in only 150 pages. Interesting perspective on modern revolutions in the Facebook/Twitter age. I was surprised at the number of typos - poor editing.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read all of Feiler's books since Walking the Bible, I have to say I felt this was a great culmination of this era of his writing. It tied everything from all of these books nicely into a current event. It was an example of the relevance of the work Feiler's has been doing, much as Abraham was but Ina more comprehensive way. I wanted to learn a little re than I did about the movement itself but I did very much appreciate the personal accounts from people on the ground. I look forward to going back and reading Feiler's earlier works sometime soon.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 Stars: Overall, the author has valid and interesting points and is able to somewhat root the understandings through a historical paradigm. Unfortunately, the writing style was not something I found pleasant as it was choppy and jumped around a bit too much. I wish he had spent more time giving an analysis of "Generation Freedom" individuals and groups versus the large amount of time on Abraham (especially when he has a book solely centered on Abraham.

[Laura Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book surprised me with opening the idea that the Arab Spring is a religious battle. Not being a religious person myself I hadn't considered it that way until I read this book. To me it was always a political battle. Feiler makes a good argument as to the religious tone of the revolutions and how they will change the world.

[Joseph Robbins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The demand for an increase in communication with/and understanding of "Generation Freedom" is worth the purchase of this book. A new generation is rising in the Middle East, one that Americans may have more in common with than we think.

[Ivan Benedict · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an analysis of activity in Egypt
during and after the Arab Spring. It involves
personal interviews with young people
involved, which can be interesting. But by
now the material is dated because of what
has happened since the time of writing.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want real perspective about what's going on with the so-called "Arab Spring"? Read this book. Now.

[Rizky Akita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking for a fresh perspective on Arab Spring? Grab this book now!

[Damned Snake · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's naive. Just that, naive, not worth of treating seriously and aged badly.

[Peter Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief and approachable look at the Arab Spring, specifically in Egypt.

[fred vanderburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was good an informative but rather short. I like Bruce Feiler reads and this was no exception. He took the negativity that is thrown at Muslims by the West and showed that the Radical Muslims are not the stereotype.