“Fadi A. Bardawil's Revolution and Disenchantment is at once a rich redescription and rehistoricization of the rise and fall of the Lebanese New Left, and an exemplary illustration of how to rework the problem of theory in relation to the practices of nonmetropolitan political intellectuals. With a timely attunement to the paradoxical conundrums of his present and an uncommon generosity of spirit, Bardawil challenges us to reconceive the contemporary demand for a dialogue between Arab intellectual traditions and the traditions of Western critical theory.” — David Scott, Columbia University
“Conceptually brilliant, prodigiously researched, and appealingly written, Revolution and Disenchantment tracks the theoretical innovations and political stakes of Arab revolutionary Marxism in the postwar era, contributing to timely debates about the necessity of decolonizing critical theory and the relationship between revolutionary militancy and political disenchantment. Fadi A. Bardawil's innovative archival excavation recovers the theoretical labor of Arab intellectuals, theorists, and militants from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine in the midst of a multiplicity of political upheavals.” — Omnia El Shakry, author of The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt
"Is the question of social inequality eclipsed by sectarianism in the Near East? Is it possible to found a Left which is both autonomous and critical of nationalism? Fadi Bardawil brings this important episode of theoretical elaboration back to the history of Arab thought. Further, he invites us to break away from the colonial perspective which stipulates that social theory is created in the North and applied to the South." (translated from French) — Jean-Michel Landry, Le Monde Diplomatique
"Revolution and Disenchantment brings Lebanon back into the story of the twentieth century francophone left and elegantly delivers a new framework for understanding the translation and transformation of theory." — Sarah K. Miles, Global Intellectual History
"Bardawil’s timely 'fieldwork in theory' offers important insights into a laboratory of political imagination out of the radar of mainstream critical theory and explores the cosmopolitical traffic of leftist theories. His work overcomes the distinction that depicts 'Western' universal theory as opposed to non-Western local theories, highlighting the transnational modulations of critical theory in a new light and in multiple directions." — Alexander Koensler, Anuac