© Columbia University Press
Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective
Paper, 512 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14489-6
$32.50
/ £22.50
November, 2009
Cloth, 512 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14488-9
$99.50
/ £68.50
"A must read for all those who want to understand the Arab world’s cultural predicament." — Issa J. Boullata, The Middle East Journal
"[An] outstanding contribution that does an excellent job of exposing the self-analysis of contemporary Arab culture." — Yoav Di-Capua, H-Levant
"The views presented here are extremely diverse and reflect an intense internal debate among Arab intellectuals over epistemological, cultural, and political causes of decline. Kassab does an excellent job of distilling various ideas and surveying the field, thereby providing the first summative narrative of its kind." — Ahmad Dallal, Georgetown University
"The malaise of Arabs today, evident in their critiques of efforts to modernize their culture and society and preserve their identity, is intelligently analyzed in this encyclopedic book. Kassab shows that other nations have experienced similar periods of cultural angst before achieving resolutions specific to themselves. Her book is one of the few in English that can make the Arab world's cultural predicament understandable for open-minded outsiders." — Issa J. Boullata, author of Trends and Issues in Contemporary Arab Thought
"Kassab has written no less than a monumental intervention in contemporary intellectual history and philosophy. This treatise, rich in erudition and critical reflection, tears apart a web of misrepresentations. Kassab makes visible the ideas, wrought from continuous struggle, crucial to, as she puts it, 'the search for a thought of one's own,' through the power of her scholarship and rigorous argumentation. This work is a triumph, a major achievement in contemporary thought, and a must-read for anyone committed to a more nuanced understanding of the intellectual's role in anticolonial struggle in modern times. As a work in political thought and intellectual history it is destined to be a classic." — Lewis Gordon, Laura H. Carnell, Temple University, and author of An Introduction to Africana Philosophy