Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century
From Triumph to Despair

Argues that Arab nationalism took root after World War I and not in the nineteenth century, and that it blossomed under the leadership of Egypt's Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir. This book criticizes the failure to distinguish between the cultural phenomenon of 'Arabism' and the political, secular desire for a united Arab state that defined Arab nationalism.

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.

CHAPTER ONE: Defining Arab Nationalism 1
CHAPTER TWO: Early Stirrings: The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 14
CHAPTER THREE: Sati' al-Husri's Theory of Arab Nationalism 49
CHAPTER FOUR: Arab Nationalism and Competing Loyalties: From the 1920s to the Arab Revolt in Palestine 75
CHAPTER FIVE: The Path to Nationalist Ascent: From the Palestinian Revolt to the Egyptian Revolution 107
CHAPTER SIX: Consolidating Arab Nationalism: The Emergence of "Arab" Egypt 135
CHAPTER SEVEN: Arab Nationalism on the March,1955-1957 160
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Apex of Arab Nationalism: The United Arab
Republic andthe Iraqi Revolution, January-September 1958 186
CHAPTER NINE: Arab Nationalism's Downward Slide,1958-1967 214
CHAPTER TEN: 1967 and After: The Twilight of Arab Nationalism 252
CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Demise of Arab Nationalism: A Postmortem 282
Bibliography 315
Index 331