Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Arab Middle Class

by Keith David Watenpaugh

Overview

In this innovative book, Keith Watenpaugh connects the question of modernity to the formation of the Arab middle class. The book explores the rise of a middle class of liberal professionals, white-collar employees, journalists, and businessmen during the first decades of the twentieth century in the Arab Middle East and the ways its members created civil society, and new forms of politics, bodies of thought, and styles of engagement with colonialism.


Discussions of the middle class have been largely absent from historical writings about the Middle East. Watenpaugh fills this lacuna by drawing on Arab, Ottoman, British, American and French sources and an eclectic body of theoretical literature and shows that within the crucible of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, World War I, and the advent of late European colonialism, a discrete middle class took shape. It was defined not just by the wealth, professions, possessions, or the levels of education of its members, but also by the way they asserted their modernity.


Using the ethnically and religiously diverse middle class of the cosmopolitan city of Aleppo, Syria, as a point of departure, Watenpaugh explores the larger political and social implications of what being modern meant in the non-West in the first half of the twentieth century.


Well researched and provocative, Being Modern in the Middle East makes a critical contribution not just to Middle East history, but also to the global study of class, mass violence, ideas, and revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691155111
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/19/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Keith David Watenpaugh is Associate Professor of Modern Islamic Studies at the University of California, Davis. He is the Eccles Fellow in Democracy and Diversity at the Tanner Humanities Center of the University of Utah and he has been a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Center for Middle East Studies and Williams College. He is associate editor for the Bulletin of the Middle Eastern Studies Association and has published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Social History, and Middle East Report.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

Note on Translation and Transliteration xiii

Abbreviations and Acronymns xv





CHAPTER ONE: Introduction: Modernity, Class, and the Architectures of Community 1
CHAPTER TWO: An Eastern Mediterranean City on the Eve of Revolution 31





SECTION I: Being Modern in a Time of Revolution: The Revolution of 1908 and the Beginnings of Middle-Class Politics (1908-1918) 55




CHAPTER THREE: Ottoman Precedents (I): Journalism, Voluntary Association, and the "True Civilization" of the Middle Class 68

CHAPTER FOUR: Ottoman Precedents (II): The Technologies of the Public Sphere and the Multiple Deaths of the Ottoman Citizen 95





SECTION II: Being Modern in a Moment of Anxiety: The Middle Class Makes Sense of a "Postwar" World (1918-1924)—Historicism, Nationalism, and Violence 121




CHAPTER FIVE: Rescuing the Arab from History: Halab, Orientalist Imaginings, Wilsonianism, and Early Arabism 134

CHAPTER SIX: The Persistence of Empire at the Moment of Its Collapse: Ottoman-Islamic Identity and "New Men" Rebels 160

CHAPTER SEVEN: Remembering the Great War: Allegory, Civic Virtue, and Conservative Reaction 185





SECTION III: Being Modern in an Era of Colonialism: Middle-Class Modernity and the Culture of the French Mandate for Syria (1925-1946) 210





CHAPTER EIGHT: Deferring to the A "yan :The Middle Class and the Politics of Notables 222

CHAPTER NINE: Middle-Class Fascism and the Transformation of Civil Violence: Steel Shirts, White Badges, and the Last Qabaday 255

CHAPTER TEN: Not Quite Syrians: Aleppo's Communities of Collaboration 279

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Coda: The Incomplete Project of Middle-Class Modernity and the Paradox of Metropolitan Desire 299





Select Bibliography 309

Index 317

What People are Saying About This

Peter Sluglett

A remarkable book. It represents a major departure in the current historiography of the Middle East and is a significant contribution to the field.
— Peter Sluglett, University of Utah

From the Publisher

"This is an original piece of scholarship that addresses interesting questions about an understudied and important aspect of Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean history. The product of a lively mind fed by broad reading, the book treats the reader to moments of wonderful insight based on new research."—Elizabeth F. Thompson, University of Virginia

"A remarkable book. It represents a major departure in the current historiography of the Middle East and is a significant contribution to the field."—Peter Sluglett, University of Utah

Thompson

This is an original piece of scholarship that addresses interesting questions about an understudied and important aspect of Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean history. The product of a lively mind fed by broad reading, the book treats the reader to moments of wonderful insight based on new research.
— Elizabeth F. Thompson, University of Virginia

Editorial Reviews

In sum, Being Modern in the Middle East is an important, interesting, and instructive contribution to the history of ideas, while also being social and cultural history at its best. It is the laudable result of years of research. Overall, it reflects the author's empathy with his subject, a quality that definitely contributes to the depth of his insights and conclusions.

H-Net Reviews - EyalZisser

Watenpaugh has utilized the available sources well for his study, including French, Ottoman and British archives. He approaches his history rather in the manner of the French Annales school in that he also makes good use of contemporary newspaper articles, speeches, autobiographies and advertisements to construct a picture of contemporary society.

Journal of Islamic Studies - Derek Hopwood

This is an original study that should be of great interest both to historians of the Middle East and to scholars working on the evolution of 'modern' lifestyles and modes of expression globally.

Historian - James Jankowski

Watenpaugh's style is clear and effective. The book is a considerable achievement that will benefit both Middle East specialists and others who wrestle with themes of nation, empire, minorities, and modernity.

International History Review - Donald Malcolm Reid

It is refreshing to read nowadays a book that does not simply repudiate modernity, but rather explores the anticipations and reactions of the studied agents themselves towards modernity . . . Being Modern in the Middle East is a superb work of cultural, political, and social history instructed political-sociological questions pertaining to modernity, civil society, and the middle class in the context of the Middle Eastern region especially its East-Mediterranean cities in the Ottoman, colonial and post-colonial era. The book, which alludes to an ample number of theoretical issues and whose forte is its scrutiny of history, will be of interest both to those concerned with the 'middle class' as a social phenomenon and with the Middle East as a modernizing region.

Middle East Journal - Uri Ram

Keith David Watenpaugh has broken ground with this study of the middle class in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Aleppo. . . . Being Modern in the Middle East is an insightful and thorough narration of Aleppo's middle class that paves the way to further understand and question the ever shifting dynamics and implications of modernity in the Middle East and beyond.

Arab Studies Journal - Sherene Seikaly

In sum, Being Modern in the Middle East is an important, interesting, and instructive contribution to the history of ideas, while also being social and cultural history at its best. It is the laudable result of years of research. Overall, it reflects the author's empathy with his subject, a quality that definitely contributes to the depth of his insights and conclusions.
— EyalZisser

H-Net Reviews

Watenpaugh has utilized the available sources well for his study, including French, Ottoman and British archives. He approaches his history rather in the manner of the French Annales school in that he also makes good use of contemporary newspaper articles, speeches, autobiographies and advertisements to construct a picture of contemporary society.
— Derek Hopwood

Journal of Islamic Studies

This is an original study that should be of great interest both to historians of the Middle East and to scholars working on the evolution of 'modern' lifestyles and modes of expression globally.
— James Jankowski

Historian

Watenpaugh's style is clear and effective. The book is a considerable achievement that will benefit both Middle East specialists and others who wrestle with themes of nation, empire, minorities, and modernity.
— Donald Malcolm Reid

International History Review

It is refreshing to read nowadays a book that does not simply repudiate modernity, but rather explores the anticipations and reactions of the studied agents themselves towards modernity . . . Being Modern in the Middle East is a superb work of cultural, political, and social history instructed political-sociological questions pertaining to modernity, civil society, and the middle class in the context of the Middle Eastern region especially its East-Mediterranean cities in the Ottoman, colonial and post-colonial era. The book, which alludes to an ample number of theoretical issues and whose forte is its scrutiny of history, will be of interest both to those concerned with the 'middle class' as a social phenomenon and with the Middle East as a modernizing region.
— Uri Ram

Middle East Journal

Keith David Watenpaugh has broken ground with this study of the middle class in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Aleppo. . . . Being Modern in the Middle East is an insightful and thorough narration of Aleppo's middle class that paves the way to further understand and question the ever shifting dynamics and implications of modernity in the Middle East and beyond.
— Sherene Seikaly

Arab Studies Journal

It is refreshing to read nowadays a book that does not simply repudiate modernity, but rather explores the anticipations and reactions of the studied agents themselves towards modernity . . . Being Modern in the Middle East is a superb work of cultural, political, and social history instructed political-sociological questions pertaining to modernity, civil society, and the middle class in the context of the Middle Eastern region especially its East-Mediterranean cities in the Ottoman, colonial and post-colonial era. The book, which alludes to an ample number of theoretical issues and whose forte is its scrutiny of history, will be of interest both to those concerned with the 'middle class' as a social phenomenon and with the Middle East as a modernizing region.—-Uri Ram, Middle East Journal

Watenpaugh's style is clear and effective. The book is a considerable achievement that will benefit both Middle East specialists and others who wrestle with themes of nation, empire, minorities, and modernity.—-Donald Malcolm Reid, International History Review

"Keith David Watenpaugh has broken ground with this study of the middle class in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Aleppo. . . . Being Modern in the Middle East is an insightful and thorough narration of Aleppo's middle class that paves the way to further understand and question the ever shifting dynamics and implications of modernity in the Middle East and beyond."—Sherene Seikaly, Arab Studies Journal

This is an original study that should be of great interest both to historians of the Middle East and to scholars working on the evolution of 'modern' lifestyles and modes of expression globally.—-James Jankowski, Historian

Watenpaugh has utilized the available sources well for his study, including French, Ottoman and British archives. He approaches his history rather in the manner of the French Annales school in that he also makes good use of contemporary newspaper articles, speeches, autobiographies and advertisements to construct a picture of contemporary society.—-Derek Hopwood, Journal of Islamic Studies

"It is refreshing to read nowadays a book that does not simply repudiate modernity, but rather explores the anticipations and reactions of the studied agents themselves towards modernity . . . Being Modern in the Middle East is a superb work of cultural, political, and social history instructed political-sociological questions pertaining to modernity, civil society, and the middle class in the context of the Middle Eastern region especially its East-Mediterranean cities in the Ottoman, colonial and post-colonial era. The book, which alludes to an ample number of theoretical issues and whose forte is its scrutiny of history, will be of interest both to those concerned with the 'middle class' as a social phenomenon and with the Middle East as a modernizing region."—Uri Ram, Middle East Journal

"Watenpaugh's style is clear and effective. The book is a considerable achievement that will benefit both Middle East specialists and others who wrestle with themes of nation, empire, minorities, and modernity."—Donald Malcolm Reid, International History Review

In sum, Being Modern in the Middle East is an important, interesting, and instructive contribution to the history of ideas, while also being social and cultural history at its best. It is the laudable result of years of research. Overall, it reflects the author's empathy with his subject, a quality that definitely contributes to the depth of his insights and conclusions.—-EyalZisser, H-Net Reviews

"This is an original study that should be of great interest both to historians of the Middle East and to scholars working on the evolution of 'modern' lifestyles and modes of expression globally."—James Jankowski, Historian

"Watenpaugh has utilized the available sources well for his study, including French, Ottoman and British archives. He approaches his history rather in the manner of the French Annales school in that he also makes good use of contemporary newspaper articles, speeches, autobiographies and advertisements to construct a picture of contemporary society."—Derek Hopwood, Journal of Islamic Studies

"In sum, Being Modern in the Middle East is an important, interesting, and instructive contribution to the history of ideas, while also being social and cultural history at its best. It is the laudable result of years of research. Overall, it reflects the author's empathy with his subject, a quality that definitely contributes to the depth of his insights and conclusions."—EyalZisser, H-Net Reviews

From the Publisher