Sadat and After: Struggles for Egypt's Political Soul

Raymond William Baker

Published by Harvard University Press 1990

Sadat and After

Struggles for Egypt's Political Soul

Raymond William Baker

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674280434

Overview
Contents

About this book

Most analyses of Egyptian politics present the limitations and failures of official political life as the complete story of politics in Egypt. Raymond Baker's direct observation of Egyptian politics has convinced him that alternative political groups have sustained themselves and carved out spaces for promising political action despite official efforts at containment.

In this compelling study, Baker recreates the public worlds of eight groups on the periphery of Egyptian politics. They range in their political stances from Communists to the Muslim Brothers and include shifting clusters of critical intellectuals who gather around influential journals or in research centers, as well as the quiescent aestheticists of the Wissa Wassef community. Taken together, the experiences of Egyptians in alternative groups reveal that Egyptians are more than the objects of diverse external pressures and more than the sufferers from multiple internal problems. They are also creative political actors who have stories to tell about the human potential to struggle for humane values and goals in the modern world.

In examining Egypt from the margins rather than from the center, Baker proposes a new direction for Third World political studies. He suggests a way out of the impasse in the current development literature, which is fixed on a scientific study of causes and determinants, by focusing on actual political struggles and alternative political visions.

Author information

Baker Raymond William :

Raymond William Baker is Professor of International Politics at Trinity College and Adjunct Professor at the American University in Cairo.

Reviews

Baker is right to insist that Egyptian society is much more than a single leader and the Egyptian governing bureaucracy. There are alternative groups, with their own power and influence, and they do have competing views of Egypt's future. Baker has a strong commitment to letting these groups speak for themselves. His knowledge of Egyptian society is impeccable. One hears the authentic voice of the Egyptians.

I have frequently been troubled at the complacency with which so many American officials look at Egypt and tend to take it for granted. There is serious need for public elaboration of those elements in Egyptian political society, which may for now be on the margins and therefore controllable, that deplore and sharply criticize the nature of the existing U.S.–Egyptian tie. Professor Baker's manuscript effectively does this... By examining marginal groups, as he has, Professor Baker may not yet have developed an independent theory on how such groups fit into theoretical analyses of Third World societies, but he has taken a significant step in that direction.

Raymond Baker wanted to write a book that would describe current Egyptian politics from the eyes of the men and women who constitute Egypt's power bases¿Raymond Baker's work is a must for Mid-East FAOs as it deals honestly with Egypt's internal politics. Being the largest population base in the Arab world and a leader in Arab and African Affairs this volume will dissect the pressures and influences in Egypt's political structure.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Introduction: Other Subjects of Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. PRESENT NARRATIVES, POSSIBLE FUTURES
1. How to Build a Better Future: Osman Ahmed Osman and the Arab Contractors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. Fighting for Freedom and the Rule of Law: The Bar Association Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
3. Restoring Egypt as Engine of the Arab World: The Nasserist Current Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
4. Making Revolution Real: The Marxists of The Vanguard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
5. Creative Empowerment: The Wissa Wassef School Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
6. Thinking in the National Interest: The Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
7. Anticipating a Free Press: The Economic Ahram Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
8. Return to the Future: The Muslim Brothers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Part II. KNOWING BETTER: GROUP POLITICS IN EGYPT AND THE THIRD WORLD
9. Re-Visioning Third World Politics: Narratives, Power, and Political Action Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
10. Unseen Struggles: Group Politics, Persons, and Possibilities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	357

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2013
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 23
- Main content: 365
Keywords: POLITICAL SCIENCE / General; Egypt -- Politics and government -- 1970-

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674280434

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1990
ISBN: 9780674280427