Towards Nasser's Egypt: the Consolidation of the July Revolution and the End of the Old Regime, 1952--1955. (Volumes I and II).

This is a study of a crucial period in modern Egyptian history, the collapse of the parliamentary era and the formative years of the Nasserist revolution. Between July 23, 1952, the date of the Free Officers' takeover, and the end of 1954 the foundations for a political, and later social, revolution were laid. This period has received little attention. St and ard histories of the old regime end with the coup; studies of Nasserist Egypt ignore the period's formative influence. An official history promulgated by the regime dominated most scholarly accounts throughout the Nasser years. A revised history, the accounts of Nasser's victims, flourished under Sadat's successor regime.As a prototype for military rule in the third world the officers' consolidation of their revolution makes interesting study. Why this happened says much about the failure of liberalism in Egypt; how it happened reveals much about the roots of the Nasserist state and the Nasserist ideology which was to have such far-reaching influence on the developing world.Sources for this study include published memoirs from all political factions, the contemporary press, interviews with leading members of the regime and their opponents, and recently declassified British and American documents. The study analyzes the transition from a military coup staged in the name of a reformed liberal order into a social revolution. The focus is upon the interaction between the Free Officers and other political forces in country which competed for influence in determining the future of Egypt's political and social order. The officers' disillusion with the ability of the old order to reform itself led them to proclaim their revolution six months after seizing power. Their failure to define a political ethos for their rule or to mobilize popular support led them to crush their enemies and to consolidate their hold over the apparatuses of state power.PhDMiddle Eastern historyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161491/1/8720219.pd