Book Reviews

69 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 43, No.2, Spring 2019 Book Reviews Edited by Nadia Barsoum The Middle East, South Asia, And North Africa THE ARAB WORLD UPENDED: Revolution and its Aftermath in Tunisia and Egypt by David B. Ottaway. United States, Boulder, Colorado Lynne Rienner Publisher 2017, 345 pages. After the autocratic regimes in the seemingly unassailable police states of Tunisia and Egypt suddenly collapsed in 2011, the Islamic parties that took over quickly succumbed in turn to further massive uprisings, this time by disaffected secularists and, in the case of Egypt, with the support of the army. What explains this? And why do the current regimes in both countries remain so fragile? Addressing these questions, drawing on years of first-hand, in-depth research, David Ottaway explores the causes of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the reasons for their radically differing outcomes, and the likely trajectory of the two countries¿ political development Ottaway tracked the history of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions and discussed the impact of a counterrevolution from abroad and the challenges facing countries after the brief, chaotic rule of Islamic parties had collapsed. Also the author summarized the similarities and differences between the Arab revolutions. He concluded that the outcomes were strikingly different in Tunisia and Egypt. 70 POLITICS & CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY IRAN, Challenging the Status Quo. Edited by Abbas Milani & Larry Diamond. United States, Boulder, Colorado Lynne Rienner Publishers 2017, 299 pages. This book is a result of a collaboration of a group of activists, poets, scholars and artists coming together under a common roof of a single book to offer a glimpse into the vibrancy of Iranian society, and the obstacles to cultural, political, and social efforts to create a democratic Iran. Milani places in historical and social context the Iranian people’s century -pluslong struggle for democracy. Tracing the rise of the coalition of forces that first brought the idea of democracy to Iran 1905-1907 period, Milani notes that much of the same coalition – with the exception of some elements of the clerical class that defended democracy in 1905 but became its enemies in the aftermath of the 1979 Revolution – has continued to provide the backbone of Iran’s democratic movement. Milani concludes with an analysis of where the larger democratic movement might be heading in the years to come. A POPULATION HISTORYOF INDIA: From the First Modern People to the Present Day by Tim Dyson. United Kingdom, London, Oxford University Press 2018. 310 pages. A Population History of India provides an account of the size and characteristics of India’s population stretching from when huntergatherer homo sapiens first arrived in the country - very roughly seventy thousand years ago - until the modern day. It is a period during which the population grew from just a handful of people to reach almost 1.4 billion, and a time when the fact of death had a huge influence on the nature of life. This book considers the millennia that were characterized by hunting and gathering, the Indus valley civilization, the opening-up of the Ganges river basin, and the eras of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, British colonial rule, and India since independence. By observing India through a demographic lens, A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day addresses mortality, fertility, the size of cities, patterns of migration, and the multitude of famines, epidemics, invasions, wars, and other events that affected the population. It draws together research from archaeology, cultural studies, economics, epidemiology, linguistics, history, and politics to understand the likely trajectory of India’s population in comparison to the trends that applied to Europe and China, and to reveal a surprising and dramatic story. 71 CHINA’S INDIA WAR: Collision Course on the Roof of the World by Bertill Lintner India, Oxford University Press 2018, 320 pages. The Sino-Indian War of 1962 delivered a crushing defeat to India: not only did the country suffer a loss of lives and a heavy blow to its pride, the world began to see India as the provocateur of the war, with China ‘merely defending’ its territory. This perception that China was largely...