Libya's Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction

by Mansour O. El-Kikhia

"A powerful study. . . . With devastating understatement, Kikhia shows how Qaddafi’s rule made everything far worse than it had been under the monarchy--from the availability of water to industrial output, from personal freedoms to foreign policy. . . . In brief, this is by far the best book ever written on the Qaddafi era."--Daniel Pipes, Middle East Quarterly "A first-rate objective analysis of the complexities of modern Libyan politics with a special focus on that country’s controversial leader. . . . Thoughtful and well-researched . . . evenhanded and immensely readable."-- Library Journal With a perspective rarely available to American readers, Mansour O. El-Kikhia, a native of Libya, offers this readable and comprehensive overview of his revolutionary homeland and its controversial leader.  He presents a brief history of Libya through the periods of colonization, independence, Arab socialism, and economic growth and then explains the impact of Qaddafi’s personality and policies in this context.  Mansour O. El-Kikhia is associate professor of political science at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

Genres: Nonfiction, Libya

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Geektastic37 · Rating 2 out of 5]

To accompany a theme of bad metaphors: this book handed me two pieces of an enormous 3D puzzle and I still don't know if I'm looking at part of Mont Saint Michele or the Titanic. I was hopeful that I would be able to complete the puzzle because the preface specified that Libya's Qaddafi was for Libya novices. I learned a little history, and more about politics and economics since the 1950, first under King Idris and then under Qaddafi. I understand the lingering influence of the tribal structure on Libya's politics and the gap between the lucky few who benefit from the oil money and the other impoverished inhabitants. These are great pieces of information, but I am missing so much other context that I have no idea what to do with them. If you do not know much about Libya and are trying to understand the background of current events, this book might help a little, but I would suggest reading something else first.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, if not somewhat jumbled look at the reign of Qaddafi in Libya. The problem with this book is that it tends to be very academic in its style, and fails to really gel an argument that compels the reader. The organization of the book does not lend itself well to really contrasting the regime with that of King Idris before him or drawing conclusions from the information presented.

Indeed the end result - that Kind Idris' monarchial rule was not great, but was better than and very different from that Qaddafi's blend of Pan-Arabism, Socialism, and Islam is hardly very provocative. Regardless of this, the book does present some good information and does give a respectable account of the events of Qaddafi's rule up to 2000. That said, however, the book is now over a decade old, and given recent events in Libya has been outpaced by more modern accounts.