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The Arab Uprisings
Jeremy Bowen has been the BBC's Middle East correspondent for twelve years and has been on the ground for them as the recent revolutions have swept through the region.
Realising this as a game-changing moment in the history of the Middle East, The Arab Uprisings captures the thoughts and feelings of the people involved as the events unfolded, putting these revolutions in their political context, and using them as a prism through which to understand the broader history and landscape of the Middle East.
The book will look at the world the demonstrators rejected and its Arab dictators. The author will examine brutal police states, tribal loyalty and foreign help. The West's response and Israel's too, will form part of the narrative.
This is an urgent and authoritative account of the seismic political changes rocking the Middle East, from one of the foremost reporters of our time.
Realising this as a game-changing moment in the history of the Middle East, The Arab Uprisings captures the thoughts and feelings of the people involved as the events unfolded, putting these revolutions in their political context, and using them as a prism through which to understand the broader history and landscape of the Middle East.
The book will look at the world the demonstrators rejected and its Arab dictators. The author will examine brutal police states, tribal loyalty and foreign help. The West's response and Israel's too, will form part of the narrative.
This is an urgent and authoritative account of the seismic political changes rocking the Middle East, from one of the foremost reporters of our time.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
27 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 31, 2018
This is not a good book.
I stopped about half way through.
The reasons are: it does not have a message, it's unfocused, and it's not fun to read.
I bought the book because I really liked a different work by Jeremy - Six Days - and that one was really awesome. Engaging, captivating, smooth writing style, lots of anectodes and sharp language.
Alas, The People Want the Fall of the Regime is not so much about the uprisings during The Arab Spring, it's a book about Jeremy and his adventures hopping from one war zone to another. He keeps pointing out how he misses his family, but then blithely boards a plane to another hotspot.
Then, the book lacks substance and depth. Supposedly there's enough to talk about for ages, with four separate uprisings and civil war in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria, but then, there isn't that much to say, it seems. People were unhappy, they resisted, some successfully, some less so. This point is rehashed on and on without giving the necessary broader geopolitical scope.
The book is sort of "among the crowds" gonzo narrative, with Jeremy walking the streets and feeling the "will of the people" as they change history, but it feels somewhat contrived, detached and nowhere near as awesome as Jeremy's other work.
The big problem is that Jeremy uses interviews to convey the message of the people. But in that he does himself injustice. His beautiful, flowing writing style is replaced with short blocks of interview text from ordinary people on the streets of Cairo, Damascus, Tripoli and alike.
Ordinary people don't write books. Or at least, not good books.
The interviews are almost all the same - short, clipped sentences, simplistic language, repetitions. It is exhausting reading these interviews. I am not interested in verbatim interpretations of ordinary people on world philosophy and politics. I expect the author to absorb all these and sanitize them, and then provide a coherent, well-worded and sharp message.
Instead, Jeremy dilutes his signature mastery of politics and culture with everyday language from common people who do not have the skill to tell a story in a good, compelling way. It's all: he said, she said, I said. He did, they tried. Very tiring. My head started to hurt a few times going through these almost-local-TV-channel tirades.
About half way through, nothing much really happened. I felt annoyed and decided to stop.
The same happened to me with Stephen Budiansky's The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox. This is another author who I love and respect. But in this particular work, much like Jeremy did here, Stephen uses letters written by ordinary people to shape the narrative. It was painful and exhausting.
And so, The Arab Uprising is more about Jeremy's work as a war reporter rather than a detached story about a complex and shifting geopolitical storm. Maybe this is an experiment for Jeremy in telling a story from a different angle, but it does not work for me. I still find it hard to believe that the same author created a breathtaking masterpiece like Six Days and the somewhat confused muddle that is this work.
Lastly, democracy ...
It's used as a holy argument throughout the book. People want democracy, supposedly, and equally supposedly, the end justifies the means.
I am convinced that most people who have been raised under democratic regimes do not really understand democracy. They don't have suficient "external" understanding of what it means. And they always, always, ALWAYS project the Euro-American model onto societies and cultures that are so drastically different.
There are a billion social, cultural, historical, and religious reasons why democracy as a concept only works in a small percentage of the world. Almost exclusively, it's not present in Asia and Africa. And introducing democracy (a rather Western concept) cannot and will not change societies overnight. Or even over several generations.
Arguing a point - or judging situations - through the lense of democracy misses the point of what the uprisings (and many other worldwide changes) are all about.
I am looking forward to more of Jeremy's books, but this one just didn't work for me.
Igor
I stopped about half way through.
The reasons are: it does not have a message, it's unfocused, and it's not fun to read.
I bought the book because I really liked a different work by Jeremy - Six Days - and that one was really awesome. Engaging, captivating, smooth writing style, lots of anectodes and sharp language.
Alas, The People Want the Fall of the Regime is not so much about the uprisings during The Arab Spring, it's a book about Jeremy and his adventures hopping from one war zone to another. He keeps pointing out how he misses his family, but then blithely boards a plane to another hotspot.
Then, the book lacks substance and depth. Supposedly there's enough to talk about for ages, with four separate uprisings and civil war in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria, but then, there isn't that much to say, it seems. People were unhappy, they resisted, some successfully, some less so. This point is rehashed on and on without giving the necessary broader geopolitical scope.
The book is sort of "among the crowds" gonzo narrative, with Jeremy walking the streets and feeling the "will of the people" as they change history, but it feels somewhat contrived, detached and nowhere near as awesome as Jeremy's other work.
The big problem is that Jeremy uses interviews to convey the message of the people. But in that he does himself injustice. His beautiful, flowing writing style is replaced with short blocks of interview text from ordinary people on the streets of Cairo, Damascus, Tripoli and alike.
Ordinary people don't write books. Or at least, not good books.
The interviews are almost all the same - short, clipped sentences, simplistic language, repetitions. It is exhausting reading these interviews. I am not interested in verbatim interpretations of ordinary people on world philosophy and politics. I expect the author to absorb all these and sanitize them, and then provide a coherent, well-worded and sharp message.
Instead, Jeremy dilutes his signature mastery of politics and culture with everyday language from common people who do not have the skill to tell a story in a good, compelling way. It's all: he said, she said, I said. He did, they tried. Very tiring. My head started to hurt a few times going through these almost-local-TV-channel tirades.
About half way through, nothing much really happened. I felt annoyed and decided to stop.
The same happened to me with Stephen Budiansky's The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox. This is another author who I love and respect. But in this particular work, much like Jeremy did here, Stephen uses letters written by ordinary people to shape the narrative. It was painful and exhausting.
And so, The Arab Uprising is more about Jeremy's work as a war reporter rather than a detached story about a complex and shifting geopolitical storm. Maybe this is an experiment for Jeremy in telling a story from a different angle, but it does not work for me. I still find it hard to believe that the same author created a breathtaking masterpiece like Six Days and the somewhat confused muddle that is this work.
Lastly, democracy ...
It's used as a holy argument throughout the book. People want democracy, supposedly, and equally supposedly, the end justifies the means.
I am convinced that most people who have been raised under democratic regimes do not really understand democracy. They don't have suficient "external" understanding of what it means. And they always, always, ALWAYS project the Euro-American model onto societies and cultures that are so drastically different.
There are a billion social, cultural, historical, and religious reasons why democracy as a concept only works in a small percentage of the world. Almost exclusively, it's not present in Asia and Africa. And introducing democracy (a rather Western concept) cannot and will not change societies overnight. Or even over several generations.
Arguing a point - or judging situations - through the lense of democracy misses the point of what the uprisings (and many other worldwide changes) are all about.
I am looking forward to more of Jeremy's books, but this one just didn't work for me.
Igor
March 3, 2022
This book does not give a comprehensive history of the Arab uprisings, but then Jeremy Bowen is not a historian, he is a reporter. And in fact he says himself in the introduction that he is not aiming for a comprehensive history and that his book will be slanted towards the episodes he had direct experience of. That said, the front line reporting is outstanding. Bowen describes vividly incidents he witnessed and allows stakeholders from all viewpoints to speak for themselves with direct quotes. The book allows you to really get inside the events as they are happening and to some extent to get into the thoughts of a huge variety of individuals who participated in the events.
Bowen does give enough historical, political and economic detail for the reader to set the events effectively in context. He also examines some of the economic, political and sectarian fault lines which make the Arab uprisings such complex events and which make each of them so different from the others. All in all a fascinating read, and an important contribution to helping us understand what is happening in the Middle East.
Bowen does give enough historical, political and economic detail for the reader to set the events effectively in context. He also examines some of the economic, political and sectarian fault lines which make the Arab uprisings such complex events and which make each of them so different from the others. All in all a fascinating read, and an important contribution to helping us understand what is happening in the Middle East.
March 25, 2021
It was quite challenging for me to engage with this book. Not because of the way it was written, but maybe because I had very different expectations. It took a very slow and long time to finish, in the back of my mind I always said the book "told me what I already knew."
But I realized I, somehow, traveled back in time. Went all the way back to 2011 - when it all began. I remember watching it on TV and getting excited about Arab Spring. Sure, the book does tell you what you know if you're interested in the Middle East and followed the events thoroughly. However, I felt like I'm following Bowen everywhere he goes in the book, and every time he talks to someone. That feeling gave me the satisfaction of going to the field study - which I was dying to do.
It's important to have the sense that you're walking side by side with the author. But also, somehow experiencing the hope, the loss, the courage, the fear, the suspicion - all at once. And to see that so much has changed in the region, yet nothing has changed at all.
But I realized I, somehow, traveled back in time. Went all the way back to 2011 - when it all began. I remember watching it on TV and getting excited about Arab Spring. Sure, the book does tell you what you know if you're interested in the Middle East and followed the events thoroughly. However, I felt like I'm following Bowen everywhere he goes in the book, and every time he talks to someone. That feeling gave me the satisfaction of going to the field study - which I was dying to do.
It's important to have the sense that you're walking side by side with the author. But also, somehow experiencing the hope, the loss, the courage, the fear, the suspicion - all at once. And to see that so much has changed in the region, yet nothing has changed at all.
March 30, 2015
Really well written and informative. This was one of the first books I read when I was starting to research my dissertation and it was extremely helpful. Bowden provides a background to the uprisings, as well as offering a more detailed analysis. It's a good book to start with in order to learn more about the Arab Spring.
May 25, 2019
Some great images and insights but no real sense of narrative
January 23, 2021
Great read, authoritative insights
Jeremy is an amazing journalist whose sheer longevity and ability to get to the nub of the matter enables him to give superb analyses of ongoing events in often complex situations
Jeremy is an amazing journalist whose sheer longevity and ability to get to the nub of the matter enables him to give superb analyses of ongoing events in often complex situations
November 28, 2018
Really informative and interesting book. Kept me hooked the whole way! It felt like a thriller but is non-fiction. Would recommend.
August 3, 2022
Insightful, thought-provoking, fascinating.
March 19, 2022
A modest description of the posed subject, reciting general knowledge from the Arab Spring, a historical event that changed the Arabian political theater forever accompanied by economic and social reforms, and the author could have added fundamental information that have been left out, precisely talking about the political issues and govenrmental changes rather than his journey through the warzones, and the interview with protesters across the region...Still, a good read for people who lacks the basic knowledge circulating around the Arab Spring, easy read with moderate length, and a coherent writing.
November 27, 2013
A pretty good eye witness view. Bowen doesn't claim to cover the whole of the story but the part he has lived and seen. Which puts a reader in a little dilemma, on the one hand, there is not enough background for a reader who is a complete novice on the Middle East, on the other hand, if you know the region and the past few years well you would know most of what is in the book. However, there is a great value to seeing through the eyes of a journalist and to reading such an elegant and accessible narrative.
----
After finishing reading
This book is not going to give you a full account of the Arab uprisings, neither a very comprehensive one. If you are an avid follower of those events, then do not expect much more to be added.
However, the brilliance here is that of a personal account of a very experienced journalist, it is a well told story, a personal account, and experience and gut of one of the "old dogs" of Middle East journalism.
Have a read, get to know more about the horrid dictators of the Middle East and the people who rebelled against them.
----
After finishing reading
This book is not going to give you a full account of the Arab uprisings, neither a very comprehensive one. If you are an avid follower of those events, then do not expect much more to be added.
However, the brilliance here is that of a personal account of a very experienced journalist, it is a well told story, a personal account, and experience and gut of one of the "old dogs" of Middle East journalism.
Have a read, get to know more about the horrid dictators of the Middle East and the people who rebelled against them.
April 14, 2016
The BBC’s Jeremy Bowen is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced reporters in the Middle East, so ‘The Arab Uprisings’ won’t disappoint if you’re after a good feet-on-the-ground report of the subject. If, however, you’re looking for a deeper analysis, which explores the complicated build up to the so-called “Arab Spring”, and the complex web embroiling the current global political situation that it’s left in its work, Bowen only touches on these issues here. This is a brilliantly written eye-witness account, full of revealing interviews and an expert insight, but it isn’t quite the political analysis I was hoping for when I spontaneously picked it up for the first time. This new edition features new information taking us from the very beginning of the Arab Spring, right up to mid-2013, and has particularly interesting new sections on the Syrian civil war.
January 13, 2014
This is an indispensable, blow-by-blow account of the Arab uprisings, set out chronologically and dealing with each country and the particular form each rebellion took, interspersed with relevant history and insightful commentary. Bowen's careful persistence in talking to individuals, civilians and rulers, islamists and republicans, serves as a poignant reminder throughout that the 'Arab World', Western media shorthand for a collection of countries spreading from near Europe, to North Africa and beyond is not a single mass but made up of millions of individuals. Absolute must-read to scratch the surface of this huge issue.
March 1, 2014
This is Bowen's version of what has come to be known as the Arab Spring. The book does not claim to be a comprehensive account of the events that took place, but I feel it does put a lot of what's happening into perspective by digging into history and the Middle East's socio-political landscape in the past decade or so. I liked the fact that so much of what's written here is based on interviews he conducted with different people -- from the ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to people on the streets of Cairo and Damascus. It adds a more human touch, a nuanced appreciation of the Arab Spring that goes beyond the name-dropping of cities/towns affected by the conflict, and the statistics.
January 26, 2014
كتاب جميل وأسلوب قصصي ممتع من المؤلف. حول جاهدا عدم ادخال رأيه وتحليله للأحداث لكنه اضطر لفعل هذا. اذا كنت تعرف تفاصيل الربيع العربي والثورات التي حدثت في تونس ومصر وليبيا وسوريا فلن يضيف لك هذا الكتاب شيئا كثيرا.
لم يتكلم كثيرا عن الثورة في اليمن والبحرين.
كتاب رائع وأعجبني كونه أول كتاب أقرأه من الغلاف إلى الغلاف.
لم يتكلم كثيرا عن الثورة في اليمن والبحرين.
كتاب رائع وأعجبني كونه أول كتاب أقرأه من الغلاف إلى الغلاف.
March 1, 2014
An excellent book providing some extremely interesting eyewitness accounts of the arab uprisings. While it is not in-depth on arab history leading to the current crises (Eugene Rogan book who Bowen mentions is) it doesn't need to be because it's focus is in the presence or recent past. Very well written and real.
February 20, 2013
Fascinating account of the so called Arab Spring. Bowen gives insight through his news reporting, personal stories and attention to detail. Much better than the simplistic soundbites we get in most of the media.
September 8, 2013
Excellent and engaging review of the four most important uprisings in the region. Told through the eyes of the on the ground reporter who is able to personalise the stories and impressions a bit more.
Important observations around what could come next and challenges ahead.
Important observations around what could come next and challenges ahead.
November 7, 2014
A detailed analysis of the political fault-lines within Middle East during the 'Arab Spring'. Great read from a first hand witness.
May 18, 2016
Just superb. A real insight into real news behind the sound bites on tv. Very thought provoking too.
November 1, 2016
Few good points and slightly biased ....
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews