The modern Middle East : a social and cultural history / Ilan Pappé.

Introduction: whose'modern times'? 1
Theories of modernization 2
Alternative views? 9
1 The political and economic background 17
Political developments 17
The economic background 42
2 The rural history ofthe Middle East in the twentieth century 61
The fast pace of change: the end of self-subsistence and autonomy 63
The colonial invasion of rural space 71
Under the yoke or blessing of independence 77
The anatomy of failure 79
The balance sheet of the Green Revolution 90
The slow pace of history: recurring patterns of rural and tribal life 95
The history of the clan and the family 95
Ruralization versus urbanization: the transformation of values,
hierarchies and social structures 99
The case of Shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi 100
The transformation of tribal space in the twentieth century 102
The ambivalent history of tribalism and kinship 107
Conclusions 112
3 Urban history 115
Questions of categorization 117
The demographic factor 119
The working class and labour 124
The history of trade unionism and communism: the first half of the
twentieth century 126
The Egyptian case 128
The unique case of Iraq 129
Missed opportunities in Palestine 132
Trade unionism under independence: the case of North Africa 133
The politics of the marketpace 133
The historiographical debate over trade unionism 136
The history of the urban middle class: the late nineteenth century 137
The politicization of the notables and middle class: effendiyya and
pashas 138
A changing political culture: the loss of the multicultural city 142
Urban political culture under independence 144
New faces of the Middle Eastern city 147
The preoccupation with security 170
Living under the threat of nationalization 134
Survival mechanisms and networks 177
The new face of the city: the history of the unemployed 139
4 Popular culture: music, dance and arts 165
Music in the twentieth century 167
The Egyptian trio 169
The Ra't heritage 173
The modern history of the ud 177
Dancing with the living and the dead 179
On stage and screen 182
5 The history ofthe written word 197
The press revolution, 1815-1900 198
The novel: early beginnings 201
The place of Naguib Mahfouz 203
The short novel 206
Motifs of the twentieth century 207
Freedom of speech and writing 212
The language of culture 216
The poetics of the century 220
6 HIstorlesof Middle Eastern women 225
An overview 227
The construction of an autonomous space 229
Legal reformers in the service of women 237
'Women worthies' 243
Nationalism and feminism 230
Women and political Islam 260
Economic change and the position of women 268
7 The many faces of religion in the twenty-first century 275
Political Islam as an intellectual discourse 277
The personal space of Islamic traditions 288
Iran: the exception or the rule? 292
Christianity in the modern Middle East 297
8 The new media revolution 301
The advent of the electronic media 301
Satellite television 304
The Internet revolution 307
9 The globalized Middle East in the twenty-first century:
three final aspects 313
Prospects for a new economic future? 313
The perils of over-urbanization: the basis for future unrest and
revolutions? 317
The struggle for the soul: the new media and the challenge of
political Islam 318
The future: saints, libraries and satellites 321
10 The'Arab Spring': a defining moment for Middle Eastern
scholars 325
Reappraisal and dissent: past debates 328
The regional expert's search for universalism 331
The emotional and engaged scholar: a recipe for the future? 333