Arab Liberal Thought in the Modern Age

The book provides in-depth analysis of Arab liberalism, which, although lacking public appeal and a compelling political underpinning, still sustained viability over time and remained a constant part of the Arab landscape. The study focuses on the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, a period that witnessed continuity as well as change in liberal thinking. Combining an historical perspective that traces lines of continuity and change in Arab liberalism with a comparative analysis of the West, Turkey and Iran, this book seeks to enrich our knowledge of liberal thought in the Arab Middle East. Through an intertwining of the historic, the integrative, and the comparative, Arab liberal thought in the modern age responds to a tendency to overlook the significance of Middle Eastern liberalism in favor of a morew powerful and assertive forces embodied by authorian regimes and Islamic movements. Following in the footsteps of their predecessors, post-1967 liberals not confronted old dilemmas, socio-economic upheavals, political instability and cultural disorientation, but also demonstrated ideological rejuvenation and provided liberal thought with new emp