Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East

The Contemporary Middle East

by Joel Beinin

The working people, who constitute the majority in any society, can be and deserve to be subjects of history. Joel Beinin's state-of-the-art survey of subaltern history in the Middle East demonstrates lucidly how their lives, experiences, and culture can inform our historical understanding. Beginning in the eighteenth century, the book charts the history of the peasants and the modern working classes across the lands of the Ottoman Empire and its Muslim-majority successor-states. Inspired by the approach of the Indian subaltern Studies school, the book presents a synthetic assessment of the scholarly work on the social history of the region for over thirty years. Students will find it rich in detail, and accessible in presentation.

Genres: Middle East, History, Nonfiction, Economics

226 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 1997

About the author

Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University. From 2006 to 2008 he served as Director of Middle East Studies and Professor of History at the American University in Cairo.
--
from wiki

Reviews

[Noora · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that explores Arab history from the perspective of political economy. Very informative but unless you go into this book with a question to answer, it's easy to get lost // miss the author's point.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is an academic read, it does provide an interesting history of workers movements in the Middle East. Unfortunately, it is very Egypt-centric and provides almost no insight into the Arabian Peninsula (do to the lack of information available). While it is a bit dry, it is undeniable that Beinin is more than adequately familiar with the subject matter.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far: dense, but informative. A pretty good, very modern, economic history of the Middle East, which is pretty well written, at least compared to most of similar books I've looked at.