ABDALLA F. HASSAN

Triumphant crowds rejoiced when Egypt’s ruler of three decades, who presided over a security-backed order that monopolized power and rigged elections, was forced to relinquish authority in the face of popular revolt. With the demise of the second Arab autocrat within a month—first in Tunisia and then in Egypt—people power seemed on the verge of revolutionizing the Middle East, known for its monarchs and presidents for life. This book unpacks Egypt’s media and politics dynamic—tracing events through the period leading up to the 2011 revolution, 18 days of uprising, then military rule, an Islamist president’s year in office, his ouster by the army, and the reestablishment of the military presidency. Expanded freedoms of expression, in the press and on the streets, have contracted with the skillful reinvention of repression, justified by the overarching war on terrorism state violence worked to foment. The revolutionary demand of “Bread, freedom, social justice, human dignity” was eclipsed by shrill cries for retribution against adversaries, mixed in a toxic brew of suspicion and contempt. Critical voices and democratic promoters were harangued for being fifth columnists seeking the nation’s ruin, and with gaping political fault lines and the advancement of myriad conspiracies, ideological trends have clung to their own narratives of truth. This is the story of an uprising.