Official Stories: Politics and National Narratives in Egypt and Algeria by Laurie A. Brand (review)

This tightly written book offers an account of “how state elites construct and reconfigure” national narratives “to serve the goals of regime consolidation and maintenance” in Egypt and Algeria, two countries with much in common and, above all, the fact that events defined as “revolutions” but dominated by the military constituted the contemporary state in each case. Beginning with a discussion of the salience of state discourse as a political tool and thus the relevance of studying this for a rounded understanding of authoritarian forms of government, the author then provides two chapters on Egypt, from 1952 to the 2011 toppling of President Husni Mubarak, two on Algeria from 1962 to 2014, a chapter drawing certain conclusions from her analyses of the two cases and finally an epilogue, reviewing her findings in the light of the “Arab Spring” and reflecting on the “limits of revolution.”

Brand has based her analysis on careful readings of official documents. These include the speeches of the two countries’ successive presidents (plus President Gamal ‘Abdel Nasser’s Philosophy of the Revolution), party declarations and platforms, the texts of constitutions and national charters and, in particular, the successive editions of school history textbooks. This painstaking research enables her to trace the way in which successive leaderships in Egypt since 1952 and Algeria since 1962 have initially framed the national narrative and then modified it over time, a concern throughout being their own legitimacy and the need to persuade their audiences that, whatever the twists and turns, and even U-turns, not to mention failures of policy, the leadership of the moment is keeping faith with the fundamental principles of the “revolution” that constituted the state. She is particularly good on the effort involved and difficulties encountered by the various regimes in “rescripting” the national story in this way, and notes how school textbooks have sometimes failed to keep pace with the changes of line in presidential speeches.

Given the numerous parallels between the two cases, the result is a book that will be particularly useful for teaching courses on the comparative politics of the Middle East and North Africa, despite the fact that Brand largely abstains from comparative analysis herself. Instead, she is concerned to identify what one might calls the dynamics and logics of this “re-scripting” — the contexts and junctures that prompt or facilitate it and the crises that make it necessary. Her conclusions in this respect are quite convincing, but leave certain important questions unaddressed.

One of these concerns what one might call the “truth content” of the evolving national narratives. Brand provides evidence that this has increased in the Algerian case. The official history has — admittedly in fits and starts — become more inclusive over time, with the emphasis shifting from the broader Arab/Islamic umma and Algeria’s “return” to this (the theme dogmatically championed by Salafi ‘ulama) to a focus on Algeria’s national story in its own terms. As a result, the roles of numerous figures — and the fratricidal divisions — in the national liberation war have eventually been acknowledged, as have those of the organizations that preceded, and prepared the ground for, the FLN in the national movement. The official story of Algeria’s national identity has also evolved: l’Amazighité — the presence and importance of the Berber/Amazigh dimension of Algerian society — was finally recognized as a pillar of the national identity (in 1996) and Tamazight (the Berber language) was accorded the status of a national language in 2002. It is not at all clear that the evolution of the national narrative in Egypt has involved a comparable progress.

Exploring this question properly — let alone other questions Brand’s study may prompt — would probably have required additional investigation, and it would be invidious to reproach her for not undertaking this. Her book provides us with the valuable findings of enterprising and careful research and will be read with profit by all students of...