Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century By Adeed Dawisha (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. 352 pages.)

Abstract

In Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century, aptly subtitled From Triumph
to Despair, Adeed Dawisha provides us a most compelling narrative. He tells of a time, not long ago, when Arabs still believed that a glorious future
was ahead of them. Today, the very thought of a fiery, charismatic Arab
leader, adored by his people and rising to oppose the West, seems silly and
unrealistic. But four decades ago, Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser
was hailed as nothing less than a modern-day savior, and it seemed – if only
for an instant – that the unification of the Arab world was not just probable,
but a historical inevitability. Dawisha goes beyond the successes, excesses,
and outright failures that defined Arab nationalism at its height. Using a
wide variety of English and Arabic source material, he weaves a complicated
picture, analyzing in detail how Arab nationalism was born and how it
would die just as quickly.
Central to his argument is that, from the beginning, Arab nationalism
faced an uphill battle in its bid to win over an otherwise indifferent (and illiterate)
populace. The author takes particular issue with George Antonious’
thesis that leading up to World War I, the region’s elites and masses had been
stirred by “the Arab will to freedom.” It would prove terribly difficult for the
nationalists to compete with entrenched pan-Islamic identities. For this reason,
the most prominent early advocates of the nationalist ideal were
Christian, such as the Syrians Negib Azoury and Ibrahim al-Yajizi. The
Muslim elites were suspicious, seeing in Arab nationalism, with its secular
emphasis, a perfidious plot to divide them ...