Sentimentalizing and Hyper-Theorizing Egypt's 2011 Uprising

Abstract

The Arab popular uprisings of 2011 caught nearly every scholar, journalist, and foreign policy think tanker by surprise. The literature about them is already prodigious. Despite their failure to democratize the region (with the partial exception of Tunisia) or promote more equitable economic policies, the political and economic crises that impelled the uprisings and the processes of change they initiated are still underway and are unlikely to be resolved for some time. Consequently, most historians would argue that we cannot now have enough perspective or primary documentary evidence to support a nuanced analysis of the multiple intersections of structure and agency that informed the uprisings, the behind-the-scenes forces (including U.S., French, and Saudi interventions to contain or roll back the revolutionary impulses) that influenced short and medium-term outcomes, and the long-term meanings and consequences of the events for the participants and their societies. I am emphatically not suggesting that scholars should not write about these events; I have done so myself (Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Stanford University Press, 2016). However, a certain modesty, self-critical spirit, and openness to revision is appropriate.