Arabic Thought against the Authoritarian Age

Cutting-edge scholarship on post-war Arab intellectual history that challenges conventional thinking about authoritarianism, religion and revolution in the modern Middle East.

The Middle East is often depicted as a landscape of war, authoritarianism, and social unrest. This book, full of cutting-edge scholarship, illuminates underappreciated aspects of the intellectual and cultural history of the post-war Arab world and explores the contributions of Arab writers, poets, and intellectuals to politics, culture and social change.In the wake of the Arab uprisings, the Middle East descended into a frenzy of political turmoil and unprecedented human tragedy which reinforced regrettable stereotypes about the moribund state of Arab intellectual and cultural life. This volume sheds important light on diverse facets of the post-war Arab world and its vibrant intellectual, literary and political history. Cutting-edge research is presented on such wide-ranging topics as poetry, intellectual history, political philosophy, and religious reform and cultural resilience all across the length and breadth of the Arab world, from Morocco to the Gulf States. This is an important statement of new directions in Middle East studies that challenges conventional thinking and has added relevance to the study of global intellectual history more broadly.