The People Want

'The people want' – thus began the slogans chanted by millions of protesters in 2011 in what was dubbed the 'Arab Spring'. While the protests revealed a long-suppressed craving for democracy, they also laid bare a deep structural crisis.In this landmark work, Middle East analyst Gilbert Achcar examines the socio-economic roots and political dynamics of the regional upheaval. He assesses the peculiarities of the region's states and regimes, and sheds light on the movements that use Islam as a political banner.Achcar argues that the Arab Spring was but the beginning of a long-term revolutionary process – a perspective confirmed by a second wave of uprisings in 2019 – and outlines the requirements for a solution to the crisis. This new edition features a preface drawing a balance sheet of the upheaval's first decade.'A detailed and searching account of the Arab Spring'–

Malise Ruthven,

New York Review of Books'The most careful, insightful, and erudite study to date of the Arab uprising.' –

Kevin Anderson (University of California, Santa Barbara),

Marx and Philosophy Review of Books'A detailed and searching account of the Arab Spring'–'Achcar's precise and illuminating analyses contrast with the usual discourses on the Arab Spring.'–

Henry Laurens (Collège de France),

L'Orient Littéraire'A thoughtful and acute analysis … Jargon-free, clear, and a model of marrying theory to empirical material.'–

Laleh Khalili (Queen Mary, University of London), Middle East in London'[This book] extends an invitation to the reader to leave a hall of mirrors that often guides explanations of the uprisings … historical events and conceptual constructs start to take a completely different shape.'–

Maha Abdelrahman (University of Cambridge),

Jadaliyya