| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Making sense of ongoing events is difficult for academics but a necessary exercise. The six books for review all address the events known as the Arab spring, Arab awakening, Arab revolt(s), Arab uprising(s), and Arab revolutions, that unfold after the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, on 17 December 2010. The different labels carry different connotations, be they bringing hope (spring, awakening), unarticulated mobilisations (revolt, uprising), or claims about results (revolution), while the
plural nuanced the sense of unity carried by the notion that the events in different Arab states were both linked together in a single historic moment and separated from other uprisings around the world. This separation is generally nuanced again by comparing the events to previous waves of uprisings, including the 2009 green movement in Iran, the 2005 Cedar revolution in Lebanon, the coloured revolutions in Serbia and former Soviet Republics in the 2000s, the 1989 movement ending communist rule in Europe, the 1974 Carnation revolution in Portugal, the 1968 students and civil rights movements, 1848, 1789 etc . . . . or the later urban movements like the Indignados and Occupy in 2011-2012.
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