A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to ISIS

by Robert Forsyth Worth

Hardcover, 2016

Status

Available

Publication

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.

Description

History. Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:The definitive work of literary journalism on the Arab Spring and its troubled aftermath In 2011, a wave of revolution spread through the Middle East as protesters demanded an end to tyranny, corruption, and economic decay. From Egypt to Yemen, a generation of young Arabs insisted on a new ethos of common citizenship. Five years later, their utopian aspirations have taken on a darker cast as old divides reemerge and deepen. In one country after another, brutal terrorists and dictators have risen to the top. A Rage for Order is the first work of literary journalism to track the tormented legacy of what was once called the Arab Spring. In the style of V. S. Naipaul and Lawrence Wright, the distinguished New York Times correspondent Robert F. Worth brings the history of the present to life through vivid stories and portraits. We meet a Libyan rebel who must decide whether to kill the Qaddafi-regime torturer who murdered his brother; a Yemeni farmer who lives in servitude to a poetry-writing, dungeon-operating chieftain; and an Egyptian doctor who is caught between his loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood and his hopes for a new, tolerant democracy. Combining dramatic storytelling with an original analysis of the Arab world today, A Rage for Ordercaptures the psychic and actual civil wars raging throughout the Middle East, and explains how the dream of an Arab renaissance gave way to a new age of discord. With an Introduction Read by the Author..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member froxgirl
This is a brief and valuable look back at the Arab Spring, the resulting failure of Islamacist governments, and the rise of ISIS (excellent timeline included). Each country - Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, and Libya - had been saddled with autocratic dictators for many years, and there seemed to be
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little exposure to democratic processes or reforms. The personalities and actions of leaders and common people are both explored and explained. In most cases, the repressed religious organizations - like the Muslim Brotherhood - rose to power as theirs were the most familiar names to citizens who had lived under strict repression for so long. The big powers of Iran and Saudi Arabia play out their own struggles for power by using their militaries and weapons to squelch rights and improvement in lives. It's just as seemingly hopeless as the situation with Afghanistan, with Yemen specifically still ruled by tribal leaders. I hope that Europe and the US can continue to help refugees, but there is just no way forward.
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LibraryThing member nmele
Worth's book is concise and at times quite personal look at the Arab Spring of 2011 and its aftermath. although I followed events in Egypt closely in 2011 and succeeding years, I learned a good deal from his account. I particularly liked his sections on Yemen, perhaps because I know some Yemeni
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students stranded here by the ongoing proxy war in their country. I had not known, for example, that a Gandhian nonviolent movement preceded the civil war and continued to work for peace and justice until after the Iranian and Saudi government began intervening.
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Awards

LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — 2016)
Arthur Ross Book Award (Silver Medal — Silver Medal — 2017)

Language

Barcode

8281
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