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Assad Al-Saleh . Voices of the Arab Spring: Personal Stories from the Arab Revolutions. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. xiii + 243 pages, foreword, acknowledgements, bibliography. Paper US$22.95 ISBN 978-0-2311-6319-4.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2017

Laura McCarter*
Affiliation:
Virginia Tech
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Abstract

Type
Briefly Noted
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America, Inc. 2017 

Narrated by the voices of people from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria, Voices of the Arab Spring provides a collection of firsthand accounts from people who participated in the Arab Spring. The contributors vary by socioeconomic class, type of political activism, experiences, and location. The book is divided into five sections, each presenting accounts from one of the five countries covered. The sections begin with a brief introduction that provides a political and chronological overview of the stories it contains. By bringing these individual stories into a collective, Al-Saleh highlights the shared sentiments of people that cross boundaries and differing backgrounds, such as the desire for participation in politics and universal freedoms. In giving individuals a platform, Al-Saleh opens the door for readers into a new understanding of the social, political, and cultural changes in the Arab world ushered in by the Arab Spring. Voices of the Arab Spring would do well as a supplemental text for courses discussing the Arab Spring as it provides students a more personal understanding of the impacts of the Arab Spring on the people.