Joel Gordon - Böcker

This book examines a key period in the formation of modern Egypt, the early years of military rule following the coup of 1952. The Free Officers Corp, a group of junior officers, overthrew Egypt's parliamentary regime in July 1952 and over the next few years consolidated their rule, brutually supressing alternative political movements. Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the young officers, emerged as the leader of the military junta and launched an ambitious programme for economic development, making Egypt a leader in Arab, African, and non-aligned politics, as well as a model for political mobilization and national development throughout the Third World.Focusing on the goals, programmes , successes, and failures of the young regime, Gordon provides the most comprehensive account of the Egyptian revolution to date. Besides bringing to light newly opened American and British sources on the period, Gordon's book is also informed by interviews he conducted with a number of actors and observers of the events.

Revolutionary Melodrama explores intersections between cinema and politics during the Nasser era, a period in which a military regime embarked upon the construction of a new civic identity for an independent Egypt. The way in which filmmakers participated in this venture provides the focal point, with their cultural production as the central texts which both shaped and were shaped by an emerging sense of a new Egypt. With the blessing of a "revolutionary" regime, filmmakers began to explore issues of social inequity, colonial and feudal exploitation, changing gender roles, religious and cultural traditions and, finally, the disappointments of the revolutionary project itself. No realm of cultural production holds greater import for the Nasser era than the cinema. Even those who are active in deconstructing the last vestiges of the Nasserist state trumpet the Nasser era as a "golden age" of the arts and media. The faces and voices on big and little screens, many still alive, some still working, constitute a pantheon who many Egyptians, young and old alike, feel will never be replaced. The author approaches his subject as a scholar of the early Nasser years who has turned his attention to questions of civic identity and its relationship to art and political symbology. The work is enriched and informed by extensive interviews with a large circle of people engaged in the production or analysis of Egyptian cinema and broadcast, then and now: directors, actors, critics, historians, scenarists, censors, musicians, writers, politicians, and government ministers. Egyptian film remains a largely ignored topic in an ever-growing literature on film and culture. This book sheds new light on what many consider to be the greatest era of Egyptian filmmaking, one that remains formative for many engaged in creating Egyptian films today.

To cite an old Egyptian cliché, Nasser (1918-1970) was the ‘first Egyptian to rule Egypt since Cleopatra.’ Deposing the corrupt king Farouk, abolishing the monarchy and negotiating the withdrawal of the British, Nasser was truly beloved by millions. Even after catastrophic military disaster in the ‘Six-Day War’ of 1967, having resigned in humiliation, such was his standing that people filled the streets to clamour for his reinstatement. In this captivating profile, Joel Gordon examines the legacy of the famous autocrat, being careful to include his limitations as well as his many strengths.