Anne Alexander is a research fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge. She has published widely on Middle Eastern politics, social movements and digital media, and is the author of a biography of Gamal Abdel-Nasser (2005).Mostafa Bassiouny has more than a decade's experience as a reporter and editor in the Egyptian and regional press. He was industrial correspondent for Al-Dustour newspaper between 2005 and 2010, reporting on the mass strikes by textile workers in Mahalla al-Kubra in 2006 and 2007, and the uprising which rocked the town in 2008. He reported on the overthrow of Ben Ali in Tunisia in January 2011 before returning to Egypt to participate in the uprising against Mubarak. Between 2011 and 2014 he was Head of News for liberal daily Al-Tahrir and is currently Egypt correspondent for the Lebanese daily Al-Safir.

In this engaging and immensely readable text, Alexander and Bassiouny confirm their position as two of the most astute observers of Egypt's labour movements. Firmly grounded in recent debates around neoliberalism, capitalism and the Egyptian state - and drawing upon a wealth of fascinating first-hand accounts - this book provides many critical insights into Egyptian workers and their ongoing struggles. It deserves to be very widely read.

• Introduction: From the Republic of Tahrir to the Republic of Fear? Theorising Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Egypt1. From Nasserism to Neoliberalism: A New Amalgam of State and Private Capital2. The Changing Structure of the Egyptian Working Class in the Neoliberal Era3. Strikes, Protests and the Development of a Revolutionary Crisis4. Organisation in the Workplace Before the Revolution: The Nasserist Model in Crisis5. From Strike Committee to Independent Union6. The Revolution's Social Soul: Workers and the January Revolution7. Workers' Organisations Since the Revolution8. The Crisis of Representation: Workers and Elections9. Tathir: The Struggle to Cleanse the StateConclusion: Beyond the Republic of Dreams: Revolutionary Organisation, Democracy and the Question of the State