I bought it and it's good. thanks!
There is more to say about "the street." This is at least the third study of the ancient "street" after Gottesman and Flower being the first two. Here begins a thread that departs from antiquity to concentrate on the metaphor "the street."1/
There is more to say about "the street." This is at least the third study of the ancient "street" after Gottesman and Flower being the first two. Here begins a thread that departs from antiquity to concentrate on the metaphor "the street."1/
Gottesman credits Regier and Khalidi 2009(Middle East Journal) for orig. Arabic, "al-shari‘ (the street) for the public ... applied [in the west] nearly exclusively to Arab public opinion [stats provided] ... with a distinctly negative cast,.. either ‘irrational’ and 2/
‘aggressive’ or... ‘apathetic’ and ‘dead.’" None of the 3 fine scholars mentioned here does that (!) - but it merits attention. R&K cite the wonderful Victor Klemperer: "“words can be like tiny doses of arsenic." Intriguingly, one early use was Rosen, APSR 1977, 3/
worth a look. R&K cite important 2003 Politics & Soc essay by Marc Lynch, a serious scholar of Arab public opinion, on cartoonish misuse of "Arab Street" w useful refs. (Muslim scholars, for instance, noted the use of the Battle of Kharbala in anti-Shah activities in Iran.) 4/
As a dangerous current metaphor -- like others for the modern Balkans or for Greece -- "Arab street" merits attention. (Tom Friedman continues to err....)
But it's important to say again that though one of the ancient studies cited here -- Gottesman --spurred this 5/
But it's important to say again that though one of the ancient studies cited here -- Gottesman --spurred this 5/
note, none is afflicted by the condescension seen among some pundits. 6/
