Recent Publications

Afghanistan

After the Taliban: Life and Security in Rural Afghanistan, by Neamatollah Nojumi, Dyan Mazurana, and Elizabeth Stites. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009. xxxviii +292 pages. Bibl. to p. 299. Index to p. 306. $80. This work is the product of a study that focuses on the status of human security in rural Afghanistan, based on fieldwork conducted in several dozen rural towns and villages in 2003 and 2004. Since that time, many of these towns have become "sealed off," and some of the residents have become displaced. Through reports on social issues, women's rights, natural resources, and traditional systems of justice in rural Afghanistan, this work offers suggestions for improving the ongoing efforts of the international community to enhance the livelihoods of rural Afghans and increase their security. (EE)

Algeria

The Administration of Sickness: Medicine and Ethics in Nineteenth-Century Algeria, by William Gallois. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 214 pages. Notes to p. 233. Bibl. to p. 255. Index to p. 262. $74.95. This work examines the role that cultures of medicine played in the creation of Algeria in the 19^th century. Since the inception of the colony in the 1830s, French and Algerian writers saw the French imperial project in the Maghrib as an attempt to medicalise Algerian society. Gallois argues that this idea of medicalization lay at the center of the French attempt to make an Algerian nation —and its failure to do so —and in the encouragement of distinct modes of resistance to French rule. The book concentrates on the consequences of French medicine for Algerians and on local responses to the project of medicalization. The book includes the first accounts of Algerian doctors working in colonial medicine, detailing the manner in which they developed an ethics of resistance to the empire. (EE)

Walls of Algiers: Narratives of the City through Text and Image, ed. by Zeynep Celik, Julia Clancy Smith, and Frances Terpak. Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute, 2009. ix + 251 pages. Select bibl. to p. 266. Index to p. 280. Contributor Biographies to p. 283. This compilation chronicles the urban history of Algiers, spanning its transformation from an Islamic city, to the pride of the French colonial empire, to the flagship of anti-imperial liberation, and finally to a capital of civil conflict. Published as a supplement to a museum exhibition at the Getty Research Institute, Walls of Algiers visually documents Algiers' long history with colorful drawings, etchings, charts, and photographs. Joining the illustrations are scholarly articles covering diverse academic fields, including social history, architecture, urban studies, and film studies, to give the reader a multifaceted look at historical Algiers. (JP)

Arab-Israeli Conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A People's War, by Beverley Milton-Edwards. London, UK: Routledge, 2009. 209 pages. Bibl. to p. 222. Index to p. 228. $39.95. This work analyzes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from its historical roots in the 19^th century to the current attempts to reach a peaceful settlement. Milton-Edwards explores the impact of the conflict on regional politics in the Middle East, framing her study around issues such as Zionism, Palestinian nationalism, the refugees, state building, and democracy. Designed for wide readership, this textbook includes a chronology of events and annotated further reading at the end of each chapter. (EE)

Egypt

Educational Roots of Political Crisis in Egypt, by Judith Cochran. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2008. 240 pages. $65. This work traces the development of Egypt's current social and political crises through the history of education in Egypt. Cochran outlines educational development in Egypt from the beginning of writing in 4000 BC to the modes of three traditions of religious education, the periods of Mamluk, Ottoman, and British occupation, and the nationalization and reforms of Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir. With respect to education in Egypt in the past 30 years, the author argues that no attempt has been made to connect academic achievement, employment, and the country's development needs, despite the generous foreign aid allocations, mainly from the World Bank and the United States. (EE)

The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Volatile Mid East, by...