Their best work uncovered fresh material or suggested creative ways of analyzing existing information to provide insights enabling readers to better comprehend the situation. Despite its hefty 400 pages, this book by Michael Willis does very little of either. It contains virtually nothing that is not available in other published sources, and its rather plodding chronological approach is quite conventional. A solid English-language overview of political Islam and its opponents in contemporary Algeria would have real merit, but in addition to lacking originality and an analytical focus, this book suffers from other critical flaws. 2 Willis's familiarity with Algeria is suspect, as revealed by egregious errors of fact.
Geographical knowledge seems a particularly weak point.
These and other similar inaccuracies point to an author with limited awareness of the cultural, geographical, and historical environment in which his study unfolds. For a Westerner examining the politics of a non-Western society, this is surely a considerable liability. Social and economic pressures undoubtedly drove many Algerians to the FIS, and many of these people did not conceptualize Islamism as did the FIS leadership, but Islam so permeated Algerian life that it is improbable that they were ignorant of the party's religio-political beliefs and agenda. The book is based on the author's doctoral research and has the distinct feel of a dissertation rushed too hastily into publication with minimal revisions. 4 To make matters worse, the book is riddled with stylistic infelicities and grammatical errors.