{"title":"Books by Fawaz A. Gerges","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780691211916","title":"ISIS – A History","description":"An authoritative introduction to ISIS—now expanded and revised to bring events up to the presentThe Islamic State stunned the world with its savagery, destructiveness, and military and recruiting successes. However, its most striking and distinctive characteristic was its capacity to build governing institutions and a theologically grounded national identity. What explains the rise of ISIS and the caliphate, and what does it portend for the future of the Middle East? In this book, one of the world’s leading authorities on political Islam and jihadism sheds new light on these questions. Moving beyond journalistic accounts, Fawaz Gerges provides a clear and compelling explanation of the deeper conditions that fuel ISIS. This new edition brings the story of ISIS to the present, covering key events—from the military defeat of its territorial state to the death of its leader al-Baghdadi—and analyzing how the ongoing Syrian, Iraqi, and Saudi-Iranian conflict could lead to ISIS’s revival.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56293744935285,"sku":"9780691211916","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691211916_bb403f48-3c0a-4280-a14e-f9b88fd4b4e4.jpg?v=1786014508"},{"product_id":"9780691176635","title":"The Great Betrayal – The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East","description":"How the Middle East can achieve political change and social progressThe Middle East is in upheaval: a widening chasm between state and society, the failure of governing elites to address citizens’ genuine grievances, massive economic mismanagement—all made worse by repeated interventions by Western powers. Why has political change been so difficult to achieve? In The Great Betrayal, Fawaz Gerges argues that the convergence of political authoritarianism, meddling by the West, and the effects of prolonged regional conflicts have produced political paralysis and economic stagnation. The agency of everyday people has been thwarted by an authoritarian status quo that is maintained by a powerful partnership of external and internal forces.   Gerges traces more than a century of consequential events in the region, from the end of the Ottoman Empire and the European carve-up of the Middle East to the Iranian Revolution and the Arab Spring uprisings. He shows how the people of the Middle East have been systematically denied self-determination, political representation, and effective government. Gerges finds that the region, with its diversity, variability, and volatility, defies abstract grand theories; previous accounts that have attributed the Middle East’s problems to any one cause such as modernism, ignore the complexity and specificity of the issues. What can we learn from the Middle East’s vexed history? Gerges is optimistic, declaring that the region’s future will be determined not by dictators and their superpower patrons but by a growing population of Arab and Muslim youth who demand to be treated as citizens and not as subjects.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294198280565,"sku":"9780691176635","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691176635_4dcfd323-b251-4235-a191-9a0a7b75bfe8.jpg?v=1786014931"},{"product_id":"what-really-went-wrong-the-west-and-the-failure-of-democracy-in-the-middle-east","title":"What Really Went Wrong – The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East","description":"An ambitious revisionist history of the modern Middle East  What Really Went Wrong offers a fresh and incisive assessment of American foreign policy’s impact on the history and politics of the modern Middle East. Looking at flashpoints in Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, and Lebanese history, Fawaz A. Gerges shows how postwar U.S. leaders made a devil’s pact with potentates, autocrats, and strongmen around the world. Washington sought to tame assertive nationalists and to protect repressive Middle Eastern regimes in return for compliance with American hegemonic designs and uninterrupted flows of cheap oil.      The book takes a counterfactual approach, asking readers to consider how the political trajectories of these countries and, by extension, the entire region may have differed had U.S. foreign policy privileged the nationalist aspirations of patriotic and independent Middle Eastern leaders and people. Gerges argues that rather than focusing on rolling back communism, extracting oil, and pursuing interventionist and imperial policies in Iran, Egypt, and beyond, postwar U.S. leaders should have allowed the Middle East greater autonomy in charting its own political and economic development. In so doing, the contemporary Middle East may have had better prospects for stability, prosperity, peace, and democracy.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466723303797,"sku":"9780300259575","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780300259575.jpg?v=1785654784"},{"product_id":"the-great-betrayal-1","title":"The Great Betrayal","description":"How the Middle East can achieve political change and social progressThe Middle East is in upheaval: a widening chasm between state and society, the failure of governing elites to address citizens’ genuine grievances, massive economic mismanagement—all made worse by repeated interventions by Western powers. Why has political change been so difficult to achieve? In The Great Betrayal, Fawaz Gerges argues that the convergence of political authoritarianism, meddling by the West, and the effects of prolonged regional conflicts have produced political paralysis and economic stagnation. The agency of everyday people has been thwarted by an authoritarian status quo that is maintained by a powerful partnership of external and internal forces.   Gerges traces more than a century of consequential events in the region, from the end of the Ottoman Empire and the European carve-up of the Middle East to the Iranian Revolution and the Arab Spring uprisings. He shows how the people of the Middle East have been systematically denied self-determination, political representation, and effective government. Gerges finds that the region, with its diversity, variability, and volatility, defies abstract grand theories; previous accounts that have attributed the Middle East’s problems to any one cause such as modernism, ignore the complexity and specificity of the issues. What can we learn from the Middle East’s vexed history? Gerges is optimistic, declaring that the region’s future will be determined not by dictators and their superpower patrons but by a growing population of Arab and Muslim youth who demand to be treated as citizens and not as subjects.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57555347439989,"sku":"9780691271972","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691271972.jpg?v=1788791172"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-fawaz-a-gerges.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}