Subalterns and Social Protest

<p>The articles in this collection provide an alternative view of Middle Eastern history by focusing on the oppressed and the excluded offering a challenge to the usual elite narratives. The collection is unique in its historical depth - ranging from the medieval period to the present - and its geographical reach including Iran the Ottoman Empire/Turkey the Balkans the Arab Middle East and North Africa.</p><p>The first to focus on the oppressed and the excluded and their differing strategies of survival of negotiation and of protest and resistance the book covers:</p><ul> <ul> <p> </p> <li>both major social classes and sectors </li> <p> </p> <li>the working class </li> <p> </p> <li>the peasantry </li> <p> </p> <li>the urban poor </li> <p> </p> <li>women </li> <p> </p> <li>marginal groups such as gypsies and slaves</li> </ul> </ul><p>Based on perspectives drawn from the work of the great European social historians and particularly inspired by Antonio Gramsci the collection seeks to restore a sense of historical agency to subaltern classes in the region and to uncover ‘the politics of the people’.</p>