Nasser's Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and the July Revolution

by Joel Gordon

This work explores the early years following the Free Officer's coup of 1952 in Egypt. It demonstrates how the officers' belief in a quick reformation by force was transformed into a long-term process that changed the face of Egypt. It analyzes the goals, programmes and successes and failures of the young regime.

Genres: Egypt, History, Middle East, Politics

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Joel Gordon is Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History and Popular Culture at the University of Arkansas.

Reviews

[Mark Rizk Farag]

Was really enjoying this, but alas - I lost it in the airport!

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a little rough going at first, but the last bit is really well written. it would be nice if he wrote another book covering the years of Nasser's rule after the mid-1950's.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nasser's Blessed Movement covers the period of time documenting Gamal Abdel Nasser's rise to power in Egypt. The book is more academic than story. Its intended audience is people with more than a passing interest in the region. Gordon begins his book documenting the political environment in Egypt during the 1930s and 1940s documenting the primary political actors and political ideologies swirling about Egypt in the decades prior to 1950's. The book follows through the Free Officers take over in July 1952 up through Nasser's assumption of power in 1954. The introductory chapters covering the political atmosphere are excellent and the conclusion to the book is also quite well researched and written. There are moments in the body of the book were he becomes bogged down in details. Some will appreciate that approach more than others.

[Andrew Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, but the author assumes reader knows a fair bit, I did not. I knew who Sadat, Nasser, Suez Crisis, Free Officers were, but only have heard the name of Salim, and never heard of Nagib. This assumes a bit more knowledge than I had, I maybe needed to read another book on this period first.

At one point, the author says well, the events of Egypt-US interaction are well-known (i.e. so well known the author doesn't need to explain this ! Except he does....)

[Hussein Al-Sharafi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book regarding the free officers rise to power! Before picking it up I thought it would be an idealistic revolutionary Nasser slop cuz hence its name “the blessed movement” but i believe it answered many of the questions that i was asking myself.

In my first year of High school i always questioned to myself and thought it was weird how the Free officers seized control without any actual “resistance” from the old political establishment. imo this event deserves serious revision, moving beyond the school textbook story of heroic officers who single-handedly rescued Egypt.

The free officers were ambitious junior Egyptian officers, humiliated by the 1948 Palestine war and determined to reform the country. By 1952 they attempted a coup and deposed King Farouk, forcing him to abdicate in favour of his infant son, although the monarchy was not abolished at this point. (It was abolished a year later) This moment symbolised the end of an era for Egypt's liberal parliamentary experiment.

To say that the officers seized power single-handedly would be a lie. Their success came from a combination of two factors. First, the officers, Nasser among them, were not deeply committed to a specific ideology, even though they believed strongly in social justice. This made it easy for them to cooperate with other factions such as the Socialists, Marxists and the Muslim Brotherhood, unlike the parliamentary parties, whose hostility and suspicion ultimately led to their downfall. The adversity between parties made cooperation difficult and progress very slow. It also made corruption rampant and created a patronage system that hindered national goals such as removing the British from the country and achieving social justice through measures like land reform, one of the free officers' defining policies and issues.

Second, the free officers were cunning in deceiving everyone by presenting themselves as saviours in a time of crisis. The Wafd believed the junta would simply hand power back to parliament once the "6 month" temporary phase ended. The Brotherhood and the Marxists believed the junta would share power with them and implement some of their ideological policies. In reality, the junta had already decided to dissolve the political parties, despite telling them to "voluntarily" purge corruption or commit to reforming the system. Unfortunately, the old political establishment was too myopic to see through the free officers' true intentions. They believed the officers' role would be minimal and, at best, just temporary to restore order amid the chaos.

The free officers, having been absent from liberal parliamentary politics prior to the coup, did not tolerate criticism. Nor did they accept elections that did not favour them, or political opposition. They introduced a new political philosophy that has endured in Egypt to this day. By January 1953 it was clear that the junta had made up its mind. It did not hand power back to civilians when the six-month transitional period ended, and instead demanded at least three years until the country holds elections again. Regardless even if the military was willing at some point in 1952-1953 to hand back power to the parliament and civilians, it was evident that the military would no longer play the apolitical role it once had before 1952.

In the end I would say I would recommend this but only if you have prior knowledge or a decent background in modern egyptian history. Since it doesn’t elaborate further on major events such as the suez canal war or the boarder social issues leading to the coup or the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian treaty. I believe i already read two books before this. Covering big chunks of early to mid 20th century Egypt so i wasn’t lost on details while reading.

[Beltaggio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up in a household that viewed 1952 with scepticism and never called it a revolution but a military coup; I still agree with that sentiment. While my dad was a Nasserist (no longer), I know fully understand my grandpa's hatred for Nasser. Abdelnasser purged the socialist/communist movement in Egypt. If anything, I learned more about the depth of the socialist movement in Egypt and left this book with a list of Egyptian Socialist figures that I must learn more about since they've been purged with history.

The Free Officers might be the first centrist revolution, they had absolutely no ideological drive. They didn't purge the Pasha class, they didn't fight the foreign occupier and clamped down on workers and socialists on a daily basis. They didn't even latch onto any political movement; they removed the King and then free-styled everything else. We are an apolitical dictatorship because of this mess. The pre-existing political parties and monarchy are to blame as well. Our failed experiment with liberal capitalist democracy prompted this problem. Pre-1952 Egypt is modern-day Jordan, a weak rump state. It's the first political movement that openly declares being centrist, apolitical and non-ideological! Then what are you even doing here? Just replacing one dictatorial regime with another. While I'm not mourning the death of our liberal-capitalist experiment (good riddance), I fail to see what angle the Free Officers approached this with.

They didn't want to establish an Islamic or Socialist state, nor did they want to revive democracy and give the establishment another chance. They wanted power but were unsure how to go through with that. However, I could find one reason the coup happened. Palestine. Our defeat in Palestine in 1948 is mentioned a lot in Nagiub and Nasser's memoirs. The "humiliation" of Egypt and the Egyptian army in Palestine and the weak response from the King played the most pivotal ideological reason for the coup. It isn't an overstatement to say that Palestine is the key to the liberation of Egypt and the region as a whole.

Egypt fundamentally reeks of a scared society. A scared nation that seemingly can never do anything 100%, we must half-ass everything. The King, Wafd, Muslim Brotherhood, Socialists and the Army. All of them don't have enough of a revolutionary spirit to try and mold the state into their vision. The Egyptian people, for their part, seem to be such passive players, accepting whatever situation they're dealt with. While I don't want to say we're a hopeless society, I can't help but shake off the idea that we aren't politically serious or ideologically driven enough to go through with a political revolution that fundamentally changes the situation for the better. This desire for "stability" and fear of "change" keeps driving this apolitical regime that we've had.

We are a nation that is unwilling to explore the true depths of its potential.

PS: I bought this book when I was 16 but I'm glad that I'm reading it now. Great work and a brilliant amount of details.