1. Islamists in Transition
2. Democrats Before Democracy
3. The Promise of Politics
4. The Turn to Repression
5. Learning to Lose
6. Temptations of Power
7. Illiberal Democracy
8. A Tunisian Exception?
9. The Past and Future of Political Islam
Shadi Hamid is a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He serves as vice-chair of the Project on Middle East Democracy and is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. Hamid lives in Washington, D.C.
Selected by Foreign Affairs as one of the "Best International
Relations Books of 2014"
Named one of Foreign Policy Association's "Ten Most Important Books
of the Year"
Featured in the Wall Street Journal's "10 Must-Read Books on the
Evolution of Terrorism in the Middle East"
"[An] excellent study..." -- New York Review of Books
"Temptations of Power by Shadi Hamid...provides a timely
exploration of what allowed a group like the Muslim Brotherhood to
succeed after the 2011 uprising in Tahrir Square - and why it
failed so spectacularly." -- Financial Times
"This is an important book...There is much to commend Hamid's
narrative, which is delivered with an all-too-unusual combination
of care and verve." -- Journal of Democracy
"One of the best books I read this year" -- Joost Lagendijk,
Today's Zaman
"The Islamists are a confounding political phenomenon, and Mr.
Hamid is acute on the paradoxes they present... he is to be
commended for delivering complicated news to no one's liking--not
the Brothers, not their modestly hopeful fans in the West, and not
their fire-breathing enemies either." --James Traub, Wall Street
Journal
"The best book I've ever read on political Islam and the Arab
spring." --Peter Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism
"Shadi Hamid has an almost oracular knowledge of the Middle East.
His analysis of the rise and fall of the so-called 'Arab Spring,'
which he distills in this excellent and eminently readable book,
has been frighteningly accurate. This is mandatory reading for
anyone interested in the past, present, and future of Islamism
across the Middle East." --Reza Aslan, author of Zealot and No god
but God
"In this first draft of history, Shadi Hamid advances a bold,
counterintuitive thesis about the Muslim Brotherhood's trajectory:
that political repression before the Arab Spring forced moderation,
and electoral victory in its aftermath brought on illiberalism and
failure. Even those who disagree will have to take on Hamid's
arguments about the centrality of ideology. Required reading for
anyone who cares about the future of Islamism, liberal democracy,
and the
Arab world." --Noah Feldman, Bernis Professor of International Law,
Harvard Law School
"Who are the Islamists? What are the boundaries of their politics?
And what decides whether they moderate or grow extreme? These are
questions of great importance, which Shadi Hamid addresses in
Temptations of Power with clarity and erudition. Hamid relies on
his intimate experience with Islamist politics to provide an
expansive picture of religious and political issues that are
shaping the future of the Middle East. This book is a welcome
contribution
to the debate on the future of Islamism, one that all those
interested in Middle East politics should read." --Vali Nasr,
author of The Dispensable Nation
"Foreign policy experts have long had a blind spot regarding
political Islam, failing to understand or appreciate the complex
interplay between a deeply rooted vision of a purer society and the
competing demands of democratic legitimacy and constitutional
liberalism. Temptations of Power leaves us no excuse for continued
ignorance. It is a nuanced, carefully researched, and engaging
analysis that draws on history, culture, political theory, and
theology to
illuminate contemporary politics across the Middle East and North
Africa." --Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO, New America
Foundation
"Like Hamid, I find it far easier to narrate than to explain the
rapid pace of change. I had the sense that the to-and-fro of daily
political struggles in which non-Islamists became suspicious of the
Brotherhood and grew paranoid, in which the Brotherhood lapsed into
its own paranoid attitudes, and in which state institutions
resisted (ultimately extremely successfully) the Brotherhood's rise
may have been a more powerful factor than any ideological
factors.
Hamid shows the movement as being flat-footed and ill-prepared for
the challenges facing it." --Nathan J. Brown, Director of Middle
East Studies, George Washington University
"Many observers have explored the question of whether Islamist
moderation is tactical or sincere. Hamid's answer is clear: it is
tactical...Looking to the future, Hamid takes a clear stand:
'Liberalism cannot hold within it Islamism.' Liberal secularists
and Islamists, he writes, hold 'irreconcilable worldviews.'" --
Foreign Affairs
"Rigorously researched. . . clear prose and an engaging tone."
-Sociology of Islam
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