Being Arab by Samir Kassir
Being Arab is a brilliant exploration of the current political and intellectual stagnation of the Arab world, by one of its most prominent journalists. In explaining how the region arrived at this point, Kassir turns to the past, revisiting the Arab "golden age," the extraordinary nineteenth-century flowering of cultural expression that continued into the twentieth as, from Cairo to Baghdad and from Beirut to Casablanca, painters, poets, musicians, playwrights and novelists came together to create a new, living Arab culture. Considering the huge impact of modernity on the region, and the accompanying shockwaves that turned society upside-down, Kassir states that the current crisis in Arab identity lies in the failure to come to terms with modernity, turning instead to false solutions such as pan-Arabism and Islamism. Being Arab is a clarion call, urging Arabs to embrace their own history, to reject Western double standards and Islamism alike, and to take the future of the region into their own hands.
This is an unusual book of such fluent and searing honesty that I almost wanted Samir Kassir to be kinder to himselfI salute his memory. -- John Pilger
Samir Kassir (1960-2005) was a columnist for the daily newspaper An-Nahar, wrote regularly for Le Monde Diplomatique, and published a number of important works in French as well as Arabic. He was killed by a car bomb in Beirut on June 2, 2005.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781844670994 |
| ISBN 10 | 1844670996 |
| Title | Being Arab |
| Author | Samir Kassir |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Verso Books |
| Year published | 2006-10-17 |
| Number of pages | 96 |
| Prizes | Winner of T.R. Fyvel Book Award 2007 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |