Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir
Ghonim launched an anonymous Facebook page in 2010 to protest the death of a man detained by Egyptian security forces. Ghonim’s followers moved from online to street protests and soon joined the massive revolution against the government. He was arrested in 2011 and held and tortured for 12 days before being released and resuming protests that led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. Ghonim chronicles his journey from Google executive to online revolutionary and the role of the Internet in fomenting and supporting the protests behind the Arab Spring. In high school, he’d stumbled onto the appeal of the Internet and developed a social-network website. He later moved to the U.S. to study computer engineering and was there until the 9/11 attacks made it a difficult place to be a Muslim. Returning to Egypt with his American wife, Ghonim eventually went to work for Google. Ghonim, who has developed a nonprofit organization to support education and technology in Egypt, brings his broad international perspective and knowledge of technology to this fascinating look at the new face of revolution. --Vanessa Bush