Into the Hands of the Soldiers
Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR
David D. Kirkpatrick, a correspondent for The New York Times, was banned from Egypt for writing this book: the definitive account of the turn back toward authoritarianism in Cairo and across the Middle East.
Egypt has long set the paradigm for Arab autocracy. It is the keeper of the peace with Israel and the cornerstone of the American-backed regional order. So when Egyptians rose up to demand democracy in 2011, their thirty months of freedom convulsed the whole region.
Now a new strongman, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is building a dictatorship so severe some call it totalitarian. The economy sputters, an insurgency simmers, Christians suffer, and the Israeli military has been forced to…
David D. Kirkpatrick is an international correspondent for the New York Times and was Cairo bureau chief from 2011 through 2015. He is currently based in London. This is his first book.
