The recent powerful wave of Middle East uprisings has fueled both hope and trepidation in the region and around the world as the ultimate fate—and fallout—of the Arab Spring continue to hang in the balance. Born and raised as a Muslim in Egypt and now living in the United States, Nonie Darwish brings an informed perspective to this carefully considered assessment of the potential outcome of the revolutions in the Middle East. This thought-provoking book will add to the ongoing debate on what the future holds for the people and the politics of the region and on the ultimate compatibility of freedom and democracy in the Muslim world.

Gene Sharp, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, is widely credited as one of the principal initiators of the Arab Spring. His 1993 book, “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” which promotes the principle of nonviolent struggle, is created with inspiring the revolution in Egypt, as well as in other countries all over the world.

Today’s Arab world was created at breathtaking speed. In just over one hundred years following the death of Mohammed in 632, Arabs had subjugated a territory with an east-west expanse greater than the Roman Empire, and they did it in about one-half the time. By the mid-eighth century, Arab armies had conquered the thousand-year-old Persian Empire, reduced the Byzantine Empire to little more than a city-state based around Constantinople, and destroyed the Visigoth kingdom of Spain. The cultural and linguistic effects of this early Islamic expansion reverberate today. This is the first popular English-language account in many years of this astonishing remaking of the political and religious map of the world. Hugh Kennedy’s sweeping narrative reveals how the Arab armies conquered almost everything in their path, and brings to light the unique characteristics of Islamic rule. One of the few academic historians with a genuine talent for story telling, Kennedy offers a compelling mix of larger-than-life characters, fierce battles, and the great clash of civilizations and religions.

Alternately identified with either the countries of the Mediterranean, those of the Middle East, or other African territories, the nations of northern Africa occupy a unique physical and historical place. After centuries of fielding various foreign invaders, northern Africans have absorbed and co-opted Greek, Roman, and Arab peoples and traditions, among others. Under the pervasive turmoil that has ensued after colonial rule and internecine warfare, readers will encounter a region of various traditions that stands at a unique crossroads between several very different worlds.

The concept of democracy has become tarnished in recent years, as governments become disconnected from voters and pursue unpopular policies. And yet the ideal of democracy continues to inspire movements around the world, most recently the uprisings across the Arab world. Brian Roper refreshes our understanding of democracy using a Marxist theoretical framework. He traces the history of democracy as it has passed through various historical moments from Athenian democracy to the Roman Republic, the revolutionary emergence of liberal representative and socialist participatory democracy in Europe and North America, and the global spread of democracy during the past century. Roper argues that democracy cannot be understood separately from underlying processes of exploitation, and the class and social struggles these generate. He offers an engaging Marxist critique of representative democracy, and raises the possibility of alternative socialist and participatory democratic forms, which will be of interest to students and scholars of history, politics, and those in other disciplines who are concerned about the past, present, and future of democracy.

When a popular revolt forced long-ruling Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to resign on February 11, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama hailed the victory of peaceful demonstrators in the heart of the Arab World. But Washington was late to endorse democracy - for decades the United States favored Egypt's rulers over its people. Since 1979, the United States had provided the Egyptian regime more than $60 billion in aid and immeasurable political support to secure its main interests in the region: Israeli security and strong relations with Persian Gulf oil producers. During the Egyptian uprising, the White House did not promote popular sovereignty but instead backed an "orderly transition" to one of Mubarak's cronies. Even after protesters derailed that plan, the anti-democratic U.S.-Egyptian alliance continued. Using untapped primary materials, this book helps explain why authoritarianism has persisted in Egypt with American support, even as policy makers claim to encourage democratic change.

A collection of case studies of nine African countries, "Civil Wars in Africa" provides a comparative perspective on the causes of civil war and the processes by which internal conflict may be resolved or averted. The book focuses on the wars in Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda as well as the experiences of Tanzania and Zimbabwe, where civil war was averted, to underline conditions under which conflict can most successfully be managed. John Kiyaga-Nsubuga focuses on Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Movement regime's attempt to bring peace to Uganda. John Prendergast and Mark Duffield look at Ethiopia's long civil war and the role of liberation politics and external engagement. Bruce Jones studies the ethnic roots of the civil war in Rwanda. Elwood Dunn explores political manipulation and ethnic differences as causes of civil strife in Liberia. John Saul examines the role of Western powers in establishing peace in Mozambique. Hussein Adam describes the collapse of the authoritarian regime in Somalia and the subsequent rise of inter-clan and sub-clan rivalry. Taisier Ali and Robert Matthews argue that the forty-year conflict in Sudan is much more complex than the usual view that it results from the pitting of the Arab, Islamic North against the African, Christian South. Shifting the focus to how internal unrest may be managed, Hevina Dashwood examines government initiatives undertaken to maintain stability in Zimbabwe and Cranford Pratt describes the policies and institutions developed by Nyerere that enabled Tanzania to avoid ethnic, regional, and religious factionalism and intra-elite rivalries. James Busumtwi-Sam explores multilateral third-party intervention, highlighting the changing role of the OAU and the United Nations and their effectiveness in averting war. The concluding chapter draws together findings from the individual case studies and incorporates them into the larger corpus of the literature. Taisier M. Ali, formerly professor of political economy at the University of Khartoum, is presently a visiting scholar in the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto. Robert O. Matthews is professor of political science, University of Toronto.