Penny Johnson is the associate editor of the Jerusalem Quarterly. Raja Shehadeh is the author of several highly-acclaimed books, including Palestinian Walks, winner of the Orwell Prize, and We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir.
Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson are the editors of Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home.
"This compilation by diverse writers lends nuanced insight into the
complicated, volatile Middle East... this timely collection of 15
essays... provides both a historical perspective on the region and
a spotlight on the current crises- e.g., how Syrian street art
helped ignite a revolution, as described by London author Malu
Halasa. While Avi Shlaim offers an elucidating overview of the lack
of territorial and political legitimacy imparted by the post-World
War I peace settlement, sociology scholar Salim Tamari analyzes
diaries by World War I soldiers on the Ottoman side whose writings
reflect the shift from Ottoman loyalties to a sense of Arab
national identity. Other essayists try to make sense of the
reigning states of chaos and despair: in Egypt, historian Khaled
Fahmy bemoans the post-Arab Spring lack of any 'imagined golden age
in which we can claim we shaped our destiny and to which we want to
return'; Iranian-British journalist Ramita Navai looks at how the
entrenched 'culture of victimhood' by the Iranian Shia underdog is
spurring a new desire to 'come in from the cold' through nuclear
deals with the U.S.; and Alev Scott believes the civic courage of
Turkish youth will prevail in President Recep Erdogan's oppressive
state. In her unique essay on living and writing in Kuwait,
novelist Mai al-Nakib uses fiction to revisit the 'forgotten or
stifled cosmopolitanism' in her country. An accessible collection
in which the editors and the contributors don't shirk from
delivering necessary criticism but offer possibilities of hope for
a troubled region."
Penny Johnson and Raja Shehadeh have edited a highly compelling
collection of essays charting the demise of the region's political
order called Shifting Sands: The Unravelling of the Old Order in
the Middle East. It is full of larger theories but also choice
tidbits, including the revelation that France's negotiator
Francois-Georges Picot signed the Sykes-Picot agreement in ink,
while the Briton Sir Mark Sykes used a pencil, reflecting each
side's attitude towards the pact. For those who despair that
diversity, humor and art might survive the turmoil, this book is a
delightful antidote.--Nicholas Pelham, author of Holy Lands:
Reviving Pluralism in the Middle East
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