The Invisible Arab

The Promise and Peril of the Arab Revolutions

By Marwan Bishara
(Nation Books, Hardcover, 9781568587080, 272pp.)

Publication Date: January 2012

Other Editions of This Title: Paperback

Categories: Middle East - General, General

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Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera English's senior political analyst and the editor & host of “Empire”, a program on the channel that examines global powers and their agendas. He was previously a professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris and a fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes et Sciences Sociales. Bishara's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, The Guardian, Le Monde and The Nation, among other outlets. He is also the chairman of The Galilee Foundation, a UK based charity that provides over one hundred students annually with university scholarships. He lives in Washington DC, Paris, and Dohar.

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Christopher Dickey, Newsweek/TheDailyBeast
Marwan Bishara's The Invisible Arab is the single most perceptive and accessible book I've read about the roots of revolt in the Middle East and the brave, chaotic, exciting and frightening new world they have begun to create.”

Kirkus Reviews
“A keen, journalistic look at the making of the Arab Spring and its ramifications.”

Huffington Post
"[Bishara] delivers a sweeping, provocative and at times entertaining tale, revolution jokes and all….The Invisible Arab is an insightful and absorbing read for inquiring minds, and a valuable tool for students of the Middle East. As globally resonant events continue to unfold in the region, a sequel is clearly in order.”

Booklist
“[Bishara] brings a long perspective on the factors that have led to the Arab Spring and the challenges ahead as resisters take up the task of securing freedom and justice and reconciling the emerging sense of nationalism with democracy. Bishara captures the spirit and energy of the young resisters and the violent reactions in Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria.”

Shelf Awareness
“Marwan Bishara’s The Invisible Arab is a clear-headed and thought-provoking appraisal of the precarious but joyously hopeful place so many Arab nations find themselves after the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2010-2011. Bishara…is well-positioned to offer an intelligent appraisal of the forces that brought these revolutions to fragile birth, the political players involved and their capacity to retain power in a relatively benign fashion or succumb to the chaos and corruption that have plagued these nations in recent years….An engaging history of recent Arab revolutions, with a guardedly optimistic look at the future.”

Huffington Post
“An engaging new book…[Bishara] delivers a sweeping, provocative and at times entertaining tale, revolution jokes and all….The Invisible Arab is an insightful and absorbing read for inquiring minds, and a valuable tool for students of the Middle East. As globally resonant events continue to unfold in the region, a sequel is clearly in order.”

Booklist
“[Bishara] brings a long perspective on the factors that have led to the Arab Spring and the challenges ahead as resisters take up the task of securing freedom and justice and reconciling the emerging sense of nationalism with democracy. Bishara captures the spirit and energy of the young resisters and the violent reactions in Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria.”

Newsweek / Daily Beast
“Avoiding the pitfall of seeing the revolution in isolation, Bishara elegantly charts how the potent forces of national-ism, Islamism, and Western intervention all mixed to create last year’s revolutions.”

Kirkus Reviews
“A keen, journalistic look at the making of the Arab Spring and its ramifications.”