This Handbook simultaneously provides a single text that narrates the Cairo of yesterday and of today, and gives the reader a major reference to the best of Cairo scholarship. Divided into three parts covering Histories, Representations and Discourses of Cairo, the chapters provide comprehensive coverage of Cairo from both a disciplinary and an interdisciplinary point of view, with scholars from a great range of disciplines. Part One contains chapters on the history of specific parts of the city to provide both a concise picture of Cairo and an appreciation for the diversity of its constituent parts and periods. Part Two of the book deals with the various forms of representations of the city, from high-end literature to popular songs, and from photographs to films. Finally, Part Three covers current discourses about the city, comprising historical reflections on the city from the present, surveys of its current condition, analysis of it serious urban problems and visions for its future. The Routledge Handbook on Cairo provides a unique and innovative look at the ever-evolving state of Cairo. It will be a vital reference source for scholars and students of Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East History, Cultural Studies, Urban Studies, Architecture and Politics.

An English PEN Award–winning collection of personal testimony from participants in the Arab Spring As revolution swept through the Arab world in spring of 2011, much of the writing that reached the West came via analysts and academics, experts and expats. We heard about Facebook posts and tweeted calls to action, but what was missing was testimony from on-the-ground participants—which is precisely what Layla Al-Zubaidi and Matthew Cassel have brought together in Diaries of an Unfinished Revolution. These essays and profoundly moving, often harrowing, firsthand accounts span the region from Tunisia to Syria and include contributors ranging from student activists to seasoned journalists—half of whom are women. This unique collection explores just how deeply politics can be held within the personal and highlights the power of writing in a time of revolution.

Public Space, Media Space asks how media saturation are transforming public space and our experience of it. From the role of graffiti and Youtube videos of street art in the Cairo revolution, to OOH (Out of Home) advertising, the book is diverse in its approach and global in its coverage.

This book provides a framework to rethink postcoloniality and urbanism from African perspectives. Bringing together multidisciplinary perspectives on African crises through postmillennial films, the book addresses the need to situate global south cultural studies within the region. The book employs film criticism and semiotics as devices to decode contemporary cultures of African cities, with a specific focus on crisis. Drawing on a variety of contemporary theories on cities of the global south, especially Africa, the book sifts through nuances of crisis urbanism within postmillennial African films. In doing so the book offers unique perspectives that move beyond the confines of sociological or anthropological studies of cities. It argues that crisis has become a mainstay reality of African cities and thus occupies a central place in the way these cities may be theorized or imagined. The book considers crises of six African cities: nonentity in post-apartheid Johannesburg, laissez faire economies of Kinshasa, urban commons in Nairobi, hustlers in postwar Monrovia, latent revolt in Cairo, and cantonments in postwar Luanda, which offer useful insights on African cities today. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of urban studies, urban geography, urban sociology, cultural studies, and media studies.

Douglas Kellner elaborates upon his well known theory which explores how media spectacle can be used as a key to interpreting contemporary culture and politics. Grounded in both cultural and communication theory, Kellner argues that politics, war, news and information, media events (like terrorist attacks or royal weddings), and now democratic uprisings, are currently organized around media spectacles, and demonstrates how and why this has occurred. Rooting the discussions within key events of 2011 - including the war in Libya, the Arab Uprisings, the wedding of William Windsor to Kate Middleton, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and the Occupy movements - Media Spectacle and Insurrection, 2011 makes a highly relevant contribution to the field of media and communication studies. It offers a fresh perspective on the theme of contemporary media spectacle and politics by adopting an approach that is based around critical social and cultural theory. This series gives students a strong critical grounding from which to examine new media.

Over the past few months I have delivered lectures, presentations and interviews on the Egyptian Revolution. I have had overflowing houses everywhere, been stopped by old ladies in the street and had my hand shaken by numerous taxi drivers and shopkeepers. And all because I’m Egyptian and the glitter of Tahrir is upon me. They wanted me to talk to them, to tell them stories about it, to tell them how, on the 28th of January when we took the Square and The People torched the headquarters of the hated ruling National Democratic Party, The (same) People formed a human chain to protect the Antiquities Museum and demanded an official handover to the military; to tell them how, on Wednesday, February 2nd, as The People defended themselves against the invading thug militias and fought pitched battles at the entrance to the Square in the shadow of the Antiquities Museum, The (same) People at the centre of the square debated political structures and laughed at stand-up comics and distributed sandwiches and water; to tell them of the chants and the poetry and the songs, of how we danced and waved at the F16s that our President flew over us. People everywhere want to make this Revolution their own, and we in Egypt want to share it. Ahdaf Soueif - novelist, commentator, activist - navigates her history of Cairo and her journey through the Revolution that’s redrawing its future. Through a map of stories drawn from private history and public record Soueif charts a story of the Revolution that is both intimately hers and publicly Egyptian. Ahdaf Soueif was born and brought up in Cairo. When the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 erupted on January 25th, she, along with thousands of others, called Tahrir Square home for eighteen days. She reported for the world’s media and did - like everyone else - whatever she could.

Egypt’s was the first non-Western country to undergo an industrial revolution. It was a major commercial center during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was one of the first countries to have (albeit briefly) a constitutional government. Its struggle for independence was among the earliest in the non-Western world. Its capital, Cairo, has served as a headquarters and a meeting place for nationalist leaders. Its schools and universities attracted students from many other African and Asian countries. For the Arab world, its educational and legal institutions set the pattern that most other Arabic-speaking countries have followed. Its books, magazines, and newspapers circulate widely. Its radio and television broadcasting became the model for other Arab states. The leadership of Jamal Abd al-Nasir and Anwar al-Sadat profoundly influenced other Arab and Third World leaders. And the demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square became the iconic movement for the so-called “Arab Spring” in the rest of the Middle East. This fourth edition of Historical Dictionary of Egypt covers its history from its emergence as an independent actor during the reign of Ali Bey (1760-1772) up to and including the first two years of the Arab Spring (February 2013). This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on of persons, events, institutions, political groups, economic and social conditions, policies, relationships with other countries, ideas, religions, ideologies, and commodities relevant to the modern history of Egypt. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Egypt.