The fires of spring
Subtitle: a post-Arab Spring journey through the turbulent new Middle East
By: Shelly Culbertson
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9781250067043
Subjects: Politics and government; Arab Spring, 2010-
Description: "The "Arab Spring" all started when a young Tunisian fruit-seller set himself on fire in protest of a government official confiscating his apples without cause and slapping his face. The aftermath of that one personal protest grew to become the Middle East movement known as the Arab Spring -- a wave of disparate events that included revolutions, protests, government overthrows, hopeful reform movements, and bloody civil wars. This book will be the first to bring the post Arab Spring world to light in a holistic context. It is a narrative of the author Shelly Culbertson's journey through six countries of the Middle East, describing countries, historical perspective, and interviews with revolution and government figures. Culbertson, RAND Middle East analyst and former U.S. State Department officer who has been involved with the Middle East for two decades, is uniquely equipped to analyze the current social, political, economic, and cultural effects of the movement. With honesty, empathy, and expert historical accuracy, Culbertson strives to answer the questions "what led to the Arab Spring," "what is it like there now," and "what trends after the Arab Spring are shaping the future of the Middle East?" The Fires of Spring tells the story by weaving together a sense of place, history, insight about key issues of our time, and personal stories and adventures. It navigates street life and peers into ministries, mosques, and women's worlds. It delves into what Arab Spring optimism was about, and at the same time sheds light on the pain and dysfunction that continues to plague some parts of the region."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Tunisia : Avenue Bourguiba on election day ; Blogging the Arab Spring ; The bullshit revolution? ; Nidaa; title: the "call for Tunis" party ; Carthage: "to retrace one's steps to the upper air"; title: Bizerte: last battle of colonialism ; We are living in the same house ; Ennahda; title: the Islamic "renaissance" party; title: The fourth holiest city in Islam ; Complementary or equal? ; He said, she said: how to write a constitution ; From Tunisia to Turkey; title: Turkey : The view from Galata bridge ; Hugging trees in Gezi park and Taksim square ; Courtyards of Topkap&#x0131; palace ; A neighborhood walk through Beyoǧlu ; 17.2 kilometers per hour up Sapphire tower ; Hürriyet Daily News ; Gallipoli's Johnnies and Mehmets ; Blood is red, Greek and Turk ; Ataturk's mausoleum ; From Ataturk to Erdoǧan ; The party of Erdoǧan ; The opposition ; AK party women ; Anatolian tigers, refugee havens ; From Turkey to Iraq; title: Iraq : An aspirational airport ; Daily life in Erbil ; The other Iraq, the next Dubai ; The oldest inhabited place in the world ; The smell of rotten apples ; The call for help ; Ideology of a cancerous quasi-state ; Fighting ISIS ; A three-way pull on the Iraqi state ; A bold restructuring ; Defending the nation-state ; Open for business ; Iraq's leading hotel ; From Iraq to Jordan; title: Jordan : The view from Amman's citadel ; Reform, not regime change, not revolution ; Democracy Jordanian-style ; The case for pluralism ; A revolution in entrepreneurship ; "The old men came out again and took our victory" ; Online and different from our parents ; Crusaders and Jihadis ; The bible and the border ; Still in the camps ; At the intersection of fifth avenue and the Champs-Élysées ; From Jordan to Qatar; title: Qatar : Skyscrapers near the corniche ; Robots and camel racing ; Another golden age of science in the Middle East? ; A Qatari poet on the challenge of change ; A ladies-only wedding party ; Near the dream hypermarket ; Freedom and Shariah ; Al Jazeera: the opinion and the other opinion ; From Qatar to Egypt; title: Egypt : Lonely pyramids ; walking Tahrir square ; Three a.m. at the Yacoubian building ; A four-finger symbol of solidarity ; Media in the margin ; How three governments messed up ; "Welcome to safe Egypt and its secure canal" ; New rules of the game ; Al-Azhar waking up ; "As far as my eyes could see, there were only women" ; Mary and Jesus slept here ; Life in cemeteries and garbage dumps ; Abandoning the troubles of Old Cairo ; Self-correcting institutions ; The google guy ; From Egypt onward.