Personal accounts of revolution

Stephanie Opperman Discussion

Dear colleagues,

I am putting together my reading list for my Fall 2014 World History survey course. I'll be working with the theme of revolution, and am looking for recommendations of personal accounts/experiences with revolution. I'm currently considering "Wobblies!: a graphic history of the Industrial Workers of the World" and "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers." Please let me know if you have any other suggestions (1450-present).

Thank you,

Dr. Stephanie Baker Opperman
Assistant Professor, Latin American and Caribbean History
Georgia College and State University

1 Reply

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Dear Stephanie, 

For the Arab Spring, you may want to look at the book described below.  Revolution and revolt feature periodically in longer pieces of Middle Eastern autobiographical writing from the 19th and 20th centuries -- offhand I cannot think of any that focus primarily on revolution (and only some are translated, of course). 

(By the way, are we no longer able to reply off list?   The versions of this message I can see online and in my Inbox (via the digest) do not contain Professor Opperman's email address, nor can I find a 'reply off list' option on the commons website.  Have I missed something?) 

Best wishes, 

Dr Hilary Kalmbach

University of Sussex

http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humanities/History/History%20earliest%20times%20to%20present%20day/21st%20century%20history%20from%20c%202000/Writing%20Revolution%20The%20Voices%20from%20Tunis%20to%20Damascus.aspx?menuitem={9978CCC3-D150-4DA8-9D88-8946250BEE8A}

Writing Revolution: The Voices from Tunis to Damascus

Edited by: Matthew Cassel, Layla Al-Zubaidi, Nemonie Craven Roderick

From Cairo to Damascus and from Tunisia to Bahrain, Layla Al-Zubaidi and Matthew Cassel have brought together some of the most exciting new writing born out of revolution in the Arab world. This is a remarkable collection of testimony, entirely composed by participants in, and witnesses to, the profound changes shaking their region. Situated between past, present and future - in a space where the personal and the political collide - these voices are part of an ongoing process, one that is at once hopeful and heartbreaking. Unique amongst material emanating from and about the convulsions in the Arab Middle East, these creative and original writers speak of history, determination and struggle, as well as of political and poetic engagement with questions of identity and activism. This book gives a moving and inspiring insight into the Arab revolutions and uprisings: why they are happening and what might come next.

Introduction by Samar Yazbek

1 | Greetings to the Dawn: Living through the Bittersweet Revolution (Tunisia) | Malek Sghiri

2 | Cairo, City in Waiting (Egypt) | Yasmine El Rashidi

3 | Bayou and Laila (Libya) | Mohamed Mesrati

4 | We Are Not Swallows (Algeria) | Ghania Mouffok

5 | The Resistance: Armed with Words (Yemen) | Jamal Jubran

6 | Coming Down from the Tower (Bahrain) | Ali Aldairy

7 | Wishful Thinking (Saudi Arabia) | Safa Al Ahmad

8 | And the Demonstrations Go On: Diary of an Unfinished Revolution (Syria) | Khawla Dunia