In The Arab Awakening, George Antonius details the story of the Arab movement: its origins, development, and obstacles. Initially published on the brink of WWII in 1939, this history is the first of its kind in its examination of Arab nationalism from the nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century. According to Antonius, Arab nationalism began stirring under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and erupted with the Arab Revolt, which lasted from 1916 to 1918. This book traces the evolution of Arab nationalism from Ottoman colonialism, to Anglo-French imperialism, and finally to political independence. Antonius demonstrates how the Arab nationalist movement was a positive force that advocated for political rights. Antonius's original research traces the shaping of the modern Middle East and remains of significant historiographical value for scholars and activists. Published prior to the creation of Israel, Antonius's classic provides the story and significance of Arab nationalism and offers insight on modern problems in the Middle East. George Habib Antonius (1891-1942), a Lebanese-Egyptian scholar and diplomat, was among the first historians of Arab nationalism. Antonious graduated from Cambridge University and joined the newly formed British Mandate of Palestine as deputy of the Education Department. His groundbreaking research in The Arab Awakening sparked debate on the origins of Arab nationalism, the role of the Arab Revolt, and the political changes post WWI.

This book is a most comprehensive study of the modernizing trend of political and social thought in the Arab Middle East.

This definitive biography of George Antonius tells the life story of a man who lived during a dramatic period of history, amid challenge that remains unresolved: the Palestine-Zionist conflict. Betrayal of Palestine is an important and innovative work about the continuing controversy of empire and nationalism. This book traces Antonius's contribution and ideas on nation building and good governance and resonates for contemporary seekers of peace in the Middle East. As an archaeology of ideas and meaning, the book will be of great significance for the millennium. It speaks to the paradigm of a conqueror's code, and to the ever present danger of special interests capturing public policy and corrupting good governance.By rediscovering Antonius's message about institutions and nation building, and the true meaning of morality, conscience and public service, Betrayal of Palestine speaks to contemporary people in a voice that reconnects the past with the present. The book offers hope to a region where many solutions have failed, and a reminder that the solutions have been there all along, in the people and traditions of the Middle East, but they have been obscured by a conqueror's code of empire and nationalism. It is a reminder of the genius of democracy and the power of first principles: that ordinary people are important, that power must be shared, and that society as nation transcends tribalism and its more virulent contemporary form: nationalism.

A study of the period of armed conflict following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.

What is the relationship between thought and practice in the domains of language, literature and politics? Is thought the only standard by which to measure intellectual history? How did Arab intellectuals change and affect political, social, cultural and economic developments from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries? This volume offers a fundamental overhaul and revival of modern Arab intellectual history. Using Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (Cambridge, 1962) as a starting point, it reassesses Arabic cultural production and political thought in the light of current scholarship and extends the analysis beyond Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the outbreak of World War II. The chapters offer a mixture of broad-stroke history on the construction of 'the Muslim world', and the emergence of the rule of law and constitutionalism in the Ottoman empire, as well as case studies on individual Arab intellectuals that illuminate the transformation of modern Arabic thought.