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'A devastating critique of one-party rule and unchecked power, and a stirring vindication of Syria's courageous civil society movement' - Rana Kabbani 'Alan George has managed to combine journalistic immediacy with academic reflection to great effect in this fascinating study of modern Syria. Based, as it is, on personal interviews with Syrians directly involved in contemporary developments there, as well as on an awareness of the Syrian reality developed over many years, this book illuminates the real crisis that Syria faces as it tries to restructure the monolithic legacy of the late President Hafidh al-Assad' - George Joffe, Centre for International Studies, Cambridge University
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Syria is one of the world's great police states. After the death of President Hafez al-Assas in mid-2000 hopes were high that his son and successor, Bashar, might succeed in reforming a system that had become a byword for repression. For six months, and for the first time in decades, Syrians were able to speak freely, without fear of the hated secret police, or mukhabarat. Political discussion groups mushroomed. The press started carrying articles openly demanding democracy, and pro-democracy petitions were circulated. Alarmed at the potential threat, regime hardliners struck back, closing down discussion and staging show trials at which pro-democracy activists were sentenced to years in jail. As justification, the regime cynically cited the need for "national unity" at a time when Israel under Ariel Sharon and the United States under George W. Bush were subjecting the region to onslaughts that many Middle Easterners saw as new manifestations of an old imperialism. Here, Alan George recounts the drama of the "Damascus Spring" and its repression, and reveals what happens in a state like Syria to the institutions that occupy the political space between government and governed.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An informative account of the suppression of the 'Damascus spring', the brief flowering of political discussion groups after Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father as president of Syria. Recommended to me - after I'd read it - by one of the key figures in the liberal opposition, who today has a secret policeman outside his house. Doesn't convey any clear sense of what the alternative to Baathist rule may be, but that is part of the problem with Syria today. Good read without being sensationalist or exaggerating the sense of crisis in the system.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
The book with the misleading title
9 April 2005
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Misleading title
Alan George's Syria Neither Bread nor Freedom has a misleading title. When I first bought this book I thought it would be a description of the genesis and evolution of the Baath Party and the Syrian dictatorship that ultimately led to poverty and suppression of human rights.
Instead, the book talks about a brief period when the current Syrian President Bashar Assad succeeded his father Hafez in 2000. The period witnessed a surge in Syrian hopes that their young president had intentions to modernize the regime and the state and allow more freedom, only to discover later that Hazfez Assad's old guard heavy weights cracked heavily on the few figures who dared criticize the regime and call for its modernization.
The author is clearly informed about this civil movement and its leaders, yet his description of these people is sometimes misleading as he tends to depict them as freedom lovers whereas in fact, many of the Syrian "civil insurgents" are just nationalists who think that the regime has failed in winning regional Arab battles and would love to see a stronger one replace it.
This is particularly misleading for Western readers who might confuse these opposition activists for pro-West at the time they are in fact very much anti-West.
The style of the book is "slow and dry," and gets boring at times. The writer should have spiced up his manuscript with figurative description of the Syrian capital and the people whom he interviewed.
Alan George's Syria Neither Bread nor Freedom has a misleading title. When I first bought this book I thought it would be a description of the genesis and evolution of the Baath Party and the Syrian dictatorship that ultimately led to poverty and suppression of human rights.
Instead, the book talks about a brief period when the current Syrian President Bashar Assad succeeded his father Hafez in 2000. The period witnessed a surge in Syrian hopes that their young president had intentions to modernize the regime and the state and allow more freedom, only to discover later that Hazfez Assad's old guard heavy weights cracked heavily on the few figures who dared criticize the regime and call for its modernization.
The author is clearly informed about this civil movement and its leaders, yet his description of these people is sometimes misleading as he tends to depict them as freedom lovers whereas in fact, many of the Syrian "civil insurgents" are just nationalists who think that the regime has failed in winning regional Arab battles and would love to see a stronger one replace it.
This is particularly misleading for Western readers who might confuse these opposition activists for pro-West at the time they are in fact very much anti-West.
The style of the book is "slow and dry," and gets boring at times. The writer should have spiced up his manuscript with figurative description of the Syrian capital and the people whom he interviewed.
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