Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam, and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882–1954

by Joel Beinin, Zachary Lockman

In this reissue of a book that was hailed as groundbreaking almost as soon as it was published, the authors examine the role of trade unionism and the working class in the development of Egyptian nationalism during the first half of the twentieth century. Beinin and Lockman examine “the dialectic of class and nation [and] the formation of a new class of wage workers as Egypt experienced a particular kind of capitalist development ... and these workers’ adoption of various forms of consciousness, organization, and collective action in a political and economic context structured by the realities of foreign domination and the struggle for national independence.” “This work breaks new ground in contemporary Western scholarship on the Middle East and challenges Orientalist assumptions that classes do not exist, or play only an insignificant role. The authors’ careful and comprehensive account of the workers and their unions is obviously understanding of, and sympathetic to, the working class. Yet it is free of the rather mechanistic and reductionist analyses of earlier writings on the subject.” ― Nazih Ayubi, MESA Bulletin.

Genres: Middle East, Egypt, History, Politics, Religion, Africa, Nonfiction

488 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1988

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.
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Reviews

[Brendan Campisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richly detailed and precisely argued history of the emerging industrial working class in Egypt and its role in the social and national struggles of the first half of the twentieth century; the analysis of the role of the communists in Egypt's labour movement is especially valuable.

[Marwan Shalaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A true canon on the Egyptian working class. A very dry read though.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

The authors' explanations are far too Marxist and fail to account for other factors.