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    Unavailable
    Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
    Unavailable
    Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
    Unavailable
    Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
    Audiobook13 hours

    Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East

    Written by David D. Kirkpatrick

    Narrated by David D. Kirkpatrick

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A candid narrative of how and why the Arab Spring sparked, then failed, and the truth about America's role in that failure and the subsequent military coup that put Sisi in power—from the Middle East correspondent of the New York Times.

    In 2011, Egyptians of all sects, ages, and social classes shook off millennia of autocracy, then elected a Muslim Brother as president. The 2013 military coup replaced him with a new strongman, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has cracked down on any dissent or opposition with a degree of ferocity Mubarak never dared. New York Times correspondent David D. Kirkpatrick arrived in Egypt with his family less than six months before the uprising first broke out in 2011, looking for a change from life in Washington, D.C. As revolution and violence engulfed the country, he received an unexpected and immersive education in the Arab world.

    For centuries, Egypt has set in motion every major trend in politics and culture across the Middle East, from independence and Arab nationalism to Islamic modernism, political Islam, and the jihadist thought that led to Al Qaeda and ISIS. The Arab Spring revolts of 2011 spread from Cairo, and now Americans understandably look with cynical exasperation at the disastrous Egyptian experiment with democracy. They fail to understand the dynamic of the uprising, the hidden story of its failure, and Washington's part in that tragedy. In this candid narrative, Kirkpatrick lives through Cairo's hopeful days and crushing disappointments alongside the diverse population of his new city: the liberal yuppies who first gathered in Tahrir Square; the persecuted Coptic Christians standing guard around Muslims at prayer during the protests; and the women of a grassroots feminism movement that tried to seize its moment. Juxtaposing his on-the-ground experience in Cairo with new reporting on the conflicts within the Obama administration, Kirkpatrick traces how authoritarianism was allowed to reclaim Egypt after thirty months of turmoil.

    Into the Hands of the Soldiers is a heartbreaking story with a simple message: The failings of decades of autocracy are the reason for the chaos we see today across the Arab world. Because autocracy is the problem, more autocracy is unlikely to provide a durable solution. Egypt, home to one in four Arabs, is always a bellwether. Understanding its recent history is essential to understanding everything taking place across the region today—from the terrorist attacks in the North Sinai and Egypt's new partnership with Israel to the bedlam in Syria and Libya.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 7, 2018
    ISBN9780525641582
    Unavailable
    Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
    Author

    David D. Kirkpatrick

    David D. Kirkpatrick is an international correspondent based in London for the New York Times. From 2011 through 2015 he was the Cairo bureau chief. He has also been a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and a contributing editor for New York magazine. Into the Hands of the Soldiers is his first book.

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    Reviews for Into the Hands of the Soldiers

    4.5/5

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    • 3/5
      a Muslim brotherhood proponent, don't know if i agree with the author!
    • 5/5
      A superb book from the the NYT Cairo bureau chief from 2011-2015. David Kirkpatrick lived in Cairo and witnessed the Arab Spring first hand as well as the military coup that deposed a democratically elected Morsi in 2013. He captures the major actors and paints a vivid picture of not only what was going on on the ground in Cairo during these violent times, but Washington's divided opinions on what was happening. While the Muslim Brotherhood's man Morsi was a second rate, ham-fisted leader, he represented an attempt to overcome the long-entrenched autocratic rule of a struggling country. Like any political group, the Brotherhood had its enemies, both within the deep state of the Egyptian bureaucracy and without, from opposing parties to the Saudis who helped bankroll the effort against them. What they were not was a terror organization. What they were not is an affiliate with AQ or ISIS; smears against an organization that was itself disunited and not always capable of speaking with one voice, but definitely a group of well-educated, well-intended Egyptians who sought change for the better. While Sisi continue to reign over a brutal autocracy, Kirkpatrick's book does leave the reader with faith in the Egyptian people; that they do want better for themselves and succeeding generations.
    • 5/5
      A good thorough investigation about the uprising in egypt..some would say Kirkpatrick sided a bit with islamists, I say he sided with democracy.