Forgotten Voices

Ali Abdullatif Ahmida is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of New England.

"Ali Ahmida is in the forefront of the new social history in this field, integrating the early modern history with the modern history and the state-centered narratives with the subaltern ones. Given the importance of the subject of Libyan history and, at the same time, its quite unexplained neglect, the present work will fill a major gap.." -- Peter Gran, Professor of History, Temple University"Ahmida has delivered to us a timely and insightful intellectual gift. His monograph not only delineates the main pitfalls of both the colonial and nationalist projects in Libya's encounter with the difficult task of transformation but also turns our attention to the complex intersection of context and volition in the movement of social time. This is a notable contribution to Libyan as well as development studies.." -- Ahmed Samatar, James Wallace Professor and Dean, International Studies and Programming, Macalester College

• Introduction: Listening to and Theorizing Libyan Society Chapter 1 Regionalism and State Formation Chapter 2 The Discovery of Awalad Muhammad in Fezn (1551 -1813) Sources and Significance Chapter 3 From Tribe to Class: The Origins and Politics of Class Formation in Colonial Libya Chapter 4 The Myth of Benign Italian Fascism: The views of the Libyans in the Colonial Concentration Camps Chapter 5 Engaging Modernity: Two views on Pedagogy and Urbanization from 20th Century Libya Chapter 6 Identity and Alienation in Post-colonial Libyan Literature Conclusion Qadhafi and Beyond: Social and Cultural Origins of the Jamihiriya State