Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century

From Triumph to Despair - New Edition with a new chapter on the twenty-first-century Arab world

Adeed Dawisha

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780691122724, 9780691102733
• eBook ISBN: 9781400880829
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

Like a great dynasty that falls to ruin and is eventually remembered more for its faults than its feats, Arab nationalism is remembered mostly for its humiliating rout in the 1967 Six Day War, for inter-Arab divisions, and for words and actions distinguished by their meagerness. But people tend to forget the majesty that Arab nationalism once was. In this elegantly narrated and richly documented book, Adeed Dawisha brings this majesty to life through a sweeping historical account of its dramatic rise and fall.


Dawisha argues that Arab nationalism--which, he says, was inspired by nineteenth-century German Romantic nationalism--really took root after World War I and not in the nineteenth century, as many believe, and that it blossomed only in the 1950s and 1960s under the charismatic leadership of Egypt's Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir. He traces the ideology's passage from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire through its triumphant ascendancy in the late 1950s with the unity of Egypt and Syria and with the nationalist revolution of Iraq, to the mortal blow it received in the 1967 Arab defeat by Israel, and its eventual eclipse. Dawisha criticizes the common failure to distinguish between the broader, cultural phenomenon of "Arabism" and the political, secular desire for a united Arab state that defined Arab nationalism. In recent decades competitive ideologies--not least, Islamic militancy--have inexorably supplanted the latter, he contends.


Dawisha, who grew up in Iraq during the heyday of Arab nationalism, infuses his work with rare personal insight and extraordinary historical breadth. In addition to Western sources, he draws on an unprecedented wealth of Arab political memoirs and studies to tell the fascinating story of one of the most colorful and significant periods of the contemporary Arab world. In doing so, he also gives us the means to more fully understand trends in the region today.

Complete with a hard-hitting new and expanded section that surveys recent nationalism and events in the Middle East, Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century tells the fascinating story of one of the most colorful and significant periods in twentieth-century Middle Eastern history.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Chapter One: Defining Arab Nationalism
• Chapter Two: Early Stirrings: The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
• Chapter Three: Sati‘ al-Husri’s Theory of Arab Nationalism
• Chapter Four: Arab Nationalism and Competing Loyalties: From the 1920s to the Arab Revolt in Palestine
• Chapter Five: The Path to Nationalist Ascent: From the Palestinian Revolt to the Egyptian Revolution
• Chapter Six: Consolidating Arab Nationalism: The Emergence of “Arab” Egypt
• Chapter Seven: Arab Nationalism on the March, 1955–1957
• Chapter Eight: The Apex of Arab Nationalism: The United Arab Republic and the Iraqi Revolution, January–September 1958
• Chapter Nine: Arab Nationalism’s Downward Slide, 1958–1967
• Chapter Ten: 1967 and After: The Twilight of Arab Nationalism
• Chapter Eleven: The Demise of Arab Nationalism: A Postmortem
• Chapter Twelve: Requiem for Arab Nationalism
• Bibliography
• Index