On Arab Society
Hopkins, Nicholas S. and Saad Eddin Ibrahim, eds. Arab Society: Social Science Perspectives. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1985. pp. 507. Paperback.
This is a strong collection of essays, published in 1985 for an undergraduate course on the social sciences in the Arab world. It covers urbanization, the tribe, political ideologies, religion, households and the wider economy, the negotiation of reality, and the impact of modern statehood.
Being some forty years old, the essays don’t reflect the immense changes of the intervening decades, least of all since the Arab Spring; at the time of publication, Arab nationalism was on its way out and Islamism was just beginning to find traction. Not every essay is remarkable, but the bulk of the collection is genuinely good and worth reading.