The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's Odyssey

by Fouad Ajami Narrated by Qarie Marshall

Overview

From Fouad Ajami, an acclaimed author and chronicler of Arab politics, comes a compelling account of how a generation of Arab intellectuals tried to introduce cultural renewals in their homelands through the forces of modernity and secularism. Ultimately, they came to face disappointment, exile, and, on occasion, death. Brilliantly weaving together the strands of a tumultuous century in Arab political thought, history, and poetry, Ajami takes us from the ruins of Beirut's once glittering metropolis to the land of Egypt, where struggle rages between a modernist impulse and an Islamist insurgency, from Nasser's pan-Arab nationalist ambitions to the emergence of an uneasy Pax Americana in Arab lands, from the triumphalism of the Gulf War to the continuing anguished debate over the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords. For anyone who seeks to understand the Middle East, here is an insider's unflinching analysis of the collision between intellectual life and political realities in the Arab world today.

Editorial Reviews

NY Times Book Review

A vivid account of how, in the author's view, Arab writers and intellectuals have neither accommodated to international reality nor joined to create the Arab world they badly need.

From the Publisher

"An important and illuminating book . . . a valuable testament to a tragic generation that tried to bridge the Arab past with modern ideals." —The New York Times

"The Dream Palace of the Arabs is an absorbing and sadly moving account of what political and economic failures on a grand scale have meant in human terms and at an individual level." —The Washington Post Book World

"Eloquent. . . . A clear-eyed look at the lost hopes of the Arabs. It opens the door to the thought processes of a society whose motivations have been little understood and often feared. The Dream Palace of the Arabs is a courageous book." —The Christian Science Monitor

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177393872
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	10/15/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	961,112

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