Arab Spring Libyan Winter

Vijay Prashad has combined history culture and politics into a superbly researched and very clear work on the Arab Spring. . . . He has achieved a considerable feat with a book that deserves to become essential reading a canonical account of a world-historic chain of events. ? The Hindu Mass action overthrew Tunisias Ben Ali and Egypts Hosni Mubarak. The revolutionary wave spread to the far corners of the Arab world from Morocco to Bahrain. It seemed as if all the authoritarian states would finally be freed even those of the Arabian Peninsula. Peoples power had produced this wave and continued to ride it out. In Libya though the new world order had different ideas. Social forces opposed to Muammar Qaddafi had begun to rebel but they were weak. In came the French and the United States with promises of glory. A deal followed with the Saudis who then sent in their own forces to cut down the Bahraini revolution and NATO began its assault ushering in a Libyan Winter that cast its shadow over the Arab Spring. This brief timely analysis situates the assault on Libya in the context of the winds of revolt that swept through the Middle East in the Spring of 2011. Vijay Prashad explores the recent history of the Qaddafi regime the social forces who opposed him and the role of the United Nations NATO and the rest of the worlds superpowers in the bloody civil war that ensued. Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and professor and director of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. He is the author or editor of several books including The Darker Nations: A Biography of the Short-Lived Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (both from LeftWord). He is a columnist for Frontline and Alternet. He is Chief Editor at LeftWord Books.