"The people want ...": the first half of slogans chanted by millions of Arab protesters in 2011 revealed a long-suppressed craving for democracy. But huge social and economic problems were also laid bare by their demands. In this landmark work, noted Middle East analyst Gilbert Achcar assesses the roots and dynamics of the Arab uprisings, and analyses the specific socio-economic features that hinder the region's development. Achcar also sheds light on the nature and role of the movements that use Islam as a political banner and the oil monarchies that sponsor them. With incisive and invaluable insight, Achcar outlines the requirements for a lasting solution to the social crisis and the contours of a progressive political alternative. What we have witnessed to date is only the beginning of a revolutionary process that is likely to extend for many more years to come.

The wave of uprisings and revolutions that swept the Middle East and North Africa between 2010 and 2012 were most vividly transmitted throughout the world not by television or even social media, but in short videos produced by the participants themselves and circulated anonymously on the internet. In The People Are Not An Image, Snowdon explores this radical shift in revolutionary self-representation, showing that the political consequences of these videos cannot be located without reference to their aesthetic form. Looking at videos from Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, and Egypt, Snowdon attends closely to the circumstances of both their production and circulation, drawing on a wide range of historical and theoretical material, to discover what they can tell us about the potential for revolution in our time and the possibilities of video as a genuinely decentralized and vernacular medium.

"The people want ...": the first half of slogans chanted by millions of Arab protesters in 2011 revealed a long-suppressed craving for democracy. But huge social and economic problems were also laid bare by their demands. In this landmark work, noted Middle East analyst Gilbert Achcar assesses the roots and dynamics of the Arab uprisings, and analyses the specific socio-economic features that hinder the region's development. Achcar also sheds light on the nature and role of the movements that use Islam as a political banner and the oil monarchies that sponsor them. With incisive and invaluable insight, Achcar outlines the requirements for a lasting solution to the social crisis and the contours of a progressive political alternative. What we have witnessed to date is only the beginning of a revolutionary process that is likely to extend for many more years to come.