Nasser at War: Arab Images of the Enemy

Synopsis

From his 1956 Suez triumph to the defeat of 1967, President Nasser of Egypt dominated the Arab revolution. Through a comination of new radio technology, radical rhetoric and personal charisma, he changed the political face of the region and defined a common Arab identity. Today, as the Arab world is once again brought together by new media and emotive issues, Nasser's legacy has developed a startling contemporary resonance. Drawing on new Arabic material and high-level insider interviews, Nasser at War casts a fresh light on the Nasser era, revealing it as a critical turning point. It explains the failure of initial Egyptian attempts to improve relations with Britain, the former colonial power; the bitter dynamics of inter-Arab competition; and how the Arab-Israeli conflict reached an uncompromising impasse. This exploration of Nasser's changing enemy images, which caused his former US ally to be seen as an imperialist opponent, provides an essential background to developments in the modern Middle East.