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Narrated by dozens of activists and everyday individuals, this book documents the unprecedented events that led to the collapse of dictatorial regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Beginning in 2011, these stories offer unique access to the message that inspired citizens to act, their experiences during revolt, and the lessons they learned from some of the most dramatic changes and appalling events to occur in the history of the Arab world. The riveting, revealing, and sometimes heartbreaking stories in this volume also include voices from Syria.
Featuring participants from a variety of social and educational backgrounds and political commitments, these personal stories of action represent the Arab Spring's united and broad social movements, collective identities, and youthful character. For years, the volume's participants lived under regimes that brutally suppressed free expression and protest. Their testimony speaks to the multifaceted emotional, psychological, and cultural factors that motivated citizens to join together to struggle against their oppressors.
— Mona El-Gobashy, Baheyya, of blogblogblog.com
This collection is of enormous importance. The speakers in these narratives are not specialist scholars but participants in the process of change and, all too often, victims of the regimes in the countries and regions covered. Their accounts provide the reader with vivid images of events that may have already been 'covered' by the world's media but have not, thus far at least, emerged with the kind of crystalline reality and sheer variety that is to be found within the covers of this book.
— Roger Allen, professor emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
Al-Saleh brings together personal stories from the democratic uprisings.... The cumulative effect of the pieces is to insist that leaders, in the Middle East and outside of it, must listen to and heed the voices of the Arab Spring before lasting positive change can take place.
— Publishers Weekly
Through the accumulation of personal stories, the reader begins to experience the larger narratives of the Arab Spring.
— National Journal
Valuable... Exhilarating to read...
— Biographile
...Humane and sensitive storytelling...
— New Statesman
Asaad Alsaleh was born and raised in Syria before moving to the United States in 2003. He is associate professor of modern Arabic literature, comparative literature, and cultural studies at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Peter Sluglett is director of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.
Foreword: Understanding Recent Social and Political Developments in the Middle East and North Africa: A Personal Odyssey, by Peter Sluglett
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Tunisia
2. Egypt
3. Libya
4. Yemen
5. Syria
Bibliography