Fouad Mami

While the book traces a progressivist line from Orientalism and modernization theories, the overall approach is non-emancipatory, as it is geared toward justifying the triumphant status quo, the one that emerged from the 2011 Uprisings. The three contributors of Chapter 2 conclude that these uprisings subscribe more or less to classical bourgeois revolutions (p. 66). They may appear so, but only when flattening cause and effect, that is, when refusing to register that the uprisings initially started as incendiary, but their revolutionary momentum was crushed in consequence of the counterrevolution’s regressive policies. Thus, the book’s approach is geared towards confusing, not explaining, what indeed took place. This confusion underlines the extent to which a triumphant regime of political economy pretends to provide a critique by simply promoting capital’s counterrevolutionary moment. As underlined in this review, those researchers working on the critique of political economy will benefit from the glitches of this book. Similarly, in its focus on the true movement of history, not ideology, students of the Arab Spring will find this volume particularly rewarding.