Colonialism and revolution in the Middle East : social and cultural origins of Egypt's 'Urabi movement / Juan R.I. Cole.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-334) and index.

1. Material and Cultural Foundations of the Old Regime -- 2. Economic Change and Social Interests -- 3. Body and Bureaucracy -- 4. The Long Revolution in Egypt -- 5. Political Clubs and the Ideology of Dissent -- 6. Guild Organization and Popular Ideology -- 7. Of Crowds and Empires: Euro-Egyptian Conflict -- 8. Repression and Censorship -- 9. Social and Cultural Origins of the Revolution -- Unpublished Sources -- Published Sources.

In this book Juan R.I. Cole challenges traditional elite-centered conceptions of the conflict that led to the British occupation of Egypt in September 1882. For a year before the British intervened, Egypt's viceregal government and the country's influential European community had been locked in a struggle with the nationalist supporters of General Ahmad al-'Urabi. Although most Western observers still see the 'Urabi movement as a "revolt" of junior military officers.

With only limited support among the Egyptian people, Cole maintains that it was a broadly based social revolution hardly underway when it was cut off by the British. While arguing this fresh point of view, he also proposes a theory of revolutions against informal or neocolonial empires, drawing parallels between Egypt in 1882, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and the Islamic Revolution in modern Iran. In a thorough examination of the changing Egyptian political culture from.

1858 through the 'Urabi episode, Cole shows how various social strata - urban guilds, the intelligentsia, and village notables - became "revolutionary." Addressing issues raised by such scholars as Barrington Moore and Theda Skocpol, his book combines four complementary approaches: social structure and its socioeconomic context, organization, ideology, and the ways in which unexpected conjunctures of events help drive a revolution.

Print version record.

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide