Revolution Squared

“Revolution Squared is an exciting book that presents a new and insightful framework for understanding the 2011 uprising in Egypt and its aftermath. Atef Shahat Said’s first-person narratives and astute sociological analysis offer a compelling perspective on the organization and longue durée of the revolutionary process. This is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary uprisings, in Egypt and beyond.” - Jessica Winegar, author of Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt

“Atef Shahat Said’s thoughtful book Revolution Squared examines the hopes and disappointments of Egypt’s pro-democracy activists, theorizing revolution and counterrevolution alongside the activists’ own attempts to understand how they succeeded so dramatically in 2011 and were defeated so decisively in 2013.” - Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“A truly powerful new study of the Egyptian Revolution. Said’s book is gripping in how it blends his own on-the-ground experience with skilled use of theories of revolution and social protest. Atef’s analysis attends to all the key elements of the revolution: youth, neighborhood committees, workers’ strikes, religious and military leaders, weaving an exceptionally rich account of how the revolution first succeeded, then fell to a military coup. This is an outstanding work that everyone interested in revolutions should read.” - Jack A. Goldstone, Virginia E. and John T. Hazel, Jr., Chair Professor of Public Policy and Eminent Scholar, George Mason University

"The book will be of great value to those interested in the relations among urban protests, democracy, and revolution, as well as those who employ multiple and divergent research methods (covered in appendix 3) to explain multifaceted phenomena." - Dena Qaddumi, American Ethnologist

"Atef Said’s stimulating new book . . . refreshingly sets aside the chicken-or-egg approach to Egypt’s 2011 revolution, centering instead the dualities that characterized it from start (2011) to finish (2013). . . . Revolution Squared may not have all the answers. But it points the way to formulating deeper, more resonant questions." - Mona El-Ghobashy, Middle East Journal

"THE INSIGHTS THAT Atef Shahat Said gained into Egypt’s politics of protest and mobilization — through his work and political activities before he embarked on an academic career — deeply enrich Revolution Squared, a participant-observer account of what is widely called Egypt’s January 25, 2011 revolution. . . . The value of Revolution Squared is not so much its contribution to the debate over whether or not this is an appropriate definition of a revolutionary situation. Rather, Said invites us to follow him as he guides us through the day-to-day struggles among the leftists, Islamists and liberals whose only point of agreement — embraced tactically by the military when its commanders felt there was no better choice — was the removal of President Hosni Mubarak." - Joel Beinin, Against the Current

"Revolution Squared is a call to re-evaluate and enrich our understanding of the Egyptian revolution. It adds to the literature on contentious politics in the Middle East specifically, and social movements theories broadly. It puts forward a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to studying episodes of contention in the region. Its analysis offers a critical framework to study and capture the inherent uncertainties that traditionally characterize social movements." - Nermin Allam, Mobilization

"Said meticulously traces the unfolding of the January 25, 2011 Revolution as a major public and cross-class upheaval aiming to initiate a democratic transition in Egypt. The novelty of this work resides its creative and unprecedented sociological take on the Revolution by depicting it as a series of events where major actors’ interactions with uncertainties, unpredictability, and challenges. ... This study constitutes a breakthrough in social movements theory and revolutions scholarship by filling in missing pieces in the analytical lens examining contentious actions, demands, and revolutions"
  - Shaimma Magued, Contemporary Sociology

"Recommended." - Elizabeth Bishop, Choice

"Revolution Squared offers a superb empirical account of Egypt’s revolution, filled with first-hand observations, insightful research, and novel nuances not seen in other books on the topic. . . . Said has developed some novel theoretical ideas of clear importance and utility to scholars of revolution, and broken new ground in the study of space, time, and contingency in revolutionary processes." - Benjamin Abrams, Perspectives on Politics