A History of Modern Tunisia

Description

Kenneth Perkins's second edition of A History of Modern Tunisia carries the history of this country from 2004 to the present, with particular emphasis on the Tunisian revolution of 2011 - the first critical event of that year's Arab Spring and the inspiration for similar populist movements across the Arab world. After providing an overview of the country in the years preceding the inauguration of a French protectorate in 1881, the book examines the impact of colonialism on the country, with particular attention to the evolution of a nationalist movement that secured the termination of the protectorate in 1956. Its analysis of the first three decades of independence, during which the leaders of the anticolonial struggle consolidated political power, assesses the challenges that they faced and the degree of success they achieved. No other English-language study of Tunisia offers as sweeping a time frame or as comprehensive a history of this nation.

Kenneth Perkins is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. A frequent traveler to the Middle East and North Africa, Dr Perkins has conducted scholarly research in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, France, the United Kingdom and Sudan. He is the author of Qaids, Captains, and Colons: French Military Administration in the Colonial Maghrib, 1844-1934; Port Sudan: The Evolution of a Colonial City; Tunisia: Crossroads of the Islamic and European Worlds; A History of Modern Tunisia (2004); and two editions of the Historical Dictionary of Tunisia; as well as numerous articles, book chapters, book reviews and encyclopedia entries.

'This new edition of [Perkins'] history brings the story up to post-2011 revolution times and examines how Tunisia's intelligentsia and leaders have dealt with currents, frequently in the ascendant, drawing the country towards Europe and the opposing currents moving her towards the Arab world, the Middle East, and traditional (usually Islamic) values.' Kenneth W. Meyer, African Studies Quarterly