My Egypt Archive

by Alan Mikhail

A prominent historian provides an engaging on-the-ground account of the everyday authoritarianism that produced the Arab Spring in Egypt
 
“A visceral and perceptive study of life under autocracy.”— Publishers Weekly
 
An unmatched contemporary history of authoritarian politics and an unflinching examination of the politics of historical authority, My Egypt Archive is at once a chronicle of Egypt in the 2000s and a historian’s bildungsroman. As Alan Mikhail dutifully collected the paper scraps of the past, he witnessed how the everyday oppressions of a government institution led most Egyptians to want to remake their society in early 2011. In telling these stories of the archive, Mikhail centers the politics of access, interpersonal relationships, state power, and the emotion, anxiety, and inchoate nature of historical research.
 
My Egypt Archive reveals the workings of an authoritarian regime from inside its institutions in the decade leading up to the Arab Spring and, in doing so, points the way to exciting new modes of historical inquiry that give voice to the visceral realities all historians experience.

Genres: History, Egypt, Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

Published January 24, 2023

Reviews

[Jim Gulley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This memoir of a historian's personal and professional journey is rendered through the crucible of the Egyptian National Archives. The archives are the main character of this saga of bureaucratic ineptitude, authoritarian state security, Egyptian culture, and the attendant tragedies that have befallen a venerable yet broken society. Each chapter reads like a Seinfeld episode by turning mundane daily occurrences into tragicomic reflections of life in Cairo during the Mubarak regime. I wish Mikhail had spilled more ink on the process of mining archival material. The “eureka” moments and “rabbit trails” would have been instructive to budding historians. Nevertheless, it was a poignant and wistful read.

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
"Part representing whole, the archive represented Egypt."

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

In My Egypt Archive, Mikhail recalls his time working as a young researcher in Egypt’s national archives, drawing a line through time from his experiences then to the Arab Spring.

For Mikhail, the archives were a microcosm of Egyptian society, mirroring the culture and politics of Egypt at large. Through stories of the archives and the bureaucrats and researchers who worked there, Mikhail demonstrates the undercurrent of tension that led into the 2011 uprising.

This book took me about 60 pages to get into but it was a fast and engaging read past that point. The first 60 pages especially required my full attention — although it is a short read, it is not a light one. Mikhail leaves you to draw conclusions for yourself.

This was a three star read for me because I wanted more of the story. How did the Arab Spring affect the archives and those who worked there? What were their thoughts and experiences? What is his own opinion? Perhaps it would have been a more satisfying read if I had personal experience in Egypt or deeper knowledge about the Arab Spring and could draw my own connections between the time he writes about, the 20-teens, and the present day.