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Generation Revolution: On the Front Line Between Tradition and Change in the Middle East
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
“ An excellent social history of Egypt’s persistent pathologies, as well as a universal story about the difficulties of changing deeply ingrained societal attitudes.” — New York Times Book Review
Generation Revolution unravels the complex forces shaping the lives of four young Egyptians on the eve and in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, and what their stories mean for the future of the Middle East.
In 2003, Rachel Aspden arrived in Egypt as a twenty-three-year-old journalist. She found a country on the brink of change. The two-thirds of Egypt’s eighty million citizens under the age of thirty were stifled, broken, and frustrated, caught between a dictatorship that had nothing to offer them and their autocratic parents’ generation, defined by tradition and obedience.
In January 2011, the young people’s patience ran out. They thought the revolution that followed would change everything. But as violence escalated, the economy collapsed, and as the united front against Mubarak shattered into sectarianism, many found themselves at a loss.
Following the stories of four young Egyptians—Amr the atheist software engineer, Amal the village girl who defied her family and her entire community, Ayman the one-time religious extremist, and Ruqayah the would-be teenage martyr— Generation Revolution exposes the failures of the Arab Spring and shines new light on those left in the wake of its lost promise.
“ An excellent social history of Egypt’s persistent pathologies, as well as a universal story about the difficulties of changing deeply ingrained societal attitudes.” — New York Times Book Review
Generation Revolution unravels the complex forces shaping the lives of four young Egyptians on the eve and in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, and what their stories mean for the future of the Middle East.
In 2003, Rachel Aspden arrived in Egypt as a twenty-three-year-old journalist. She found a country on the brink of change. The two-thirds of Egypt’s eighty million citizens under the age of thirty were stifled, broken, and frustrated, caught between a dictatorship that had nothing to offer them and their autocratic parents’ generation, defined by tradition and obedience.
In January 2011, the young people’s patience ran out. They thought the revolution that followed would change everything. But as violence escalated, the economy collapsed, and as the united front against Mubarak shattered into sectarianism, many found themselves at a loss.
Following the stories of four young Egyptians—Amr the atheist software engineer, Amal the village girl who defied her family and her entire community, Ayman the one-time religious extremist, and Ruqayah the would-be teenage martyr— Generation Revolution exposes the failures of the Arab Spring and shines new light on those left in the wake of its lost promise.
288 pages, Paperback
First published February 4, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 15, 2019
The one book you need to read if you want to get informed about Egypt, young Egyptians, and the Middle East in the midst of the Arab Spring
August 22, 2025
The first part was good............went bad afterwards
January 10, 2018
An accessible book about the experiences of young Egyptians caught up in years of political turmoil. Worth reading to learn of their experiences and their bravery in trying to change their circumstances in intolerable circumstances. Made me feel gratitude for the relative ease of my own life.
January 29, 2017
Interesting and current story.
March 24, 2017
Good portraits of young Egyptians, and welcome nuance on the different Islamic movements there. The framing of the book (title, etc) is a bit political-wonky, but really these are just interesting people to get to know, and the book is written in a very accessible way.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews