The Libyan Revolution and Its Aftermath

This book offers a novel, incisive and wide-ranging account of Libya's '17 February Revolution' by tracing how critical towns, communities and political groups helped to shape its course. Each community, whether geographical (e.g. Misrata, Zintan), tribal/communal (e.g. Beni Walid) or political (e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood) took its own path into the uprisings and subsequent conflict of 2011, according to their own histories and relationship to Muammar Qadhafi's regime. The story of each group is told by the authors, based on reportage and expert analysis, from the outbreak of protests in Benghazi in February 2011 through to the transitional period following the end of fighting in October 2011. They describe the emergence of Libya's new politics through the unique stories of those who made it happen, or those who fought against it. The Libyan Revolution and its Aftermath brings together leading journalists, academics, and specialists, each with extensive field experience amidst the constituencies they depict, drawing on interviews with fighters, politicians and civil society leaders who have contributed their own account of events to this volume.

About the Author :
Brian McQuinn is Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of Oxford, after having completed a PhD in anthropology on the 2011 uprising in Libya, as a Guggenheim Foundation Dissertation Fellow at the same university. He was previously the assistant director of the Carter Center Conflict Resolution Program and a conflict prevention advisor for the United Nations Development Programme. Brian McQuinn is currently completing a PhD in anthropology on the 2011 uprising in Libya, as a Guggenheim Foundation Dissertation Fellow at the University of Oxford. He was previously the assistant director of the Carter Center Conflict Resolution Program and a conflict prevention advisor for the United Nations Development Programme.

Review :
" A timely acknowledgment that Libya's chemistry is older than the laboratory Qaddafi fashioned. The book traces not only the colonel's demise, as many others have done, but the appearance of a lesser-known new cast. Written almost entirely by foreign experts, some of whom know the different factions intimately, it is the most detailed account I have read of the old forces shaping new Libya." -- Nicholas Pelham, New York Review of Books "A timely acknowledgment that Libya's chemistry is older than the laboratory Qaddafi fashioned. The book traces not only the colonel's demise, as many others have done, but the appearance of a lesser-known new cast. Written almost entirely by foreign experts, some of whom know the different factions intimately, it is the most detailed account I have read of the old forces shaping new Libya." -- Nicholas Pelham, New York Review of Books "Here in shocking detail is the story of Libya's violent "uncertain revolution" of 2011-12. Expert eye-witnesses give blow-by-blow accounts of why, where, when and how complex popular revolts replaced the Gaddafi fiefdom with a chaotic national "liberation". A serious, convincing and much needed clarification of the Libyan crisis." -- John Wright, former chief political commentator and analyst of the BBC Arabic Service, and author of A History of Libya "This unique and valuable book describes the Libyan Revolution as it has never been described before. It is full of rewarding surprises and deep insights of the sort that seldom make it into daily reporting. Rarely has any revolution been captured in so many dimensions by such a capable collection of authors." -- Jon B. Alterman, Senior Vice President, Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy and Director, Middle East Program Center for Strategic and International Studies "This volume represents the first in-depth account of the dramatic fall and aftermath of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. Peter Cole and Brian McQuinn have successfully brought together nearly all of the keenest and most expert observers of this drama, journalists, academic and policy-makers, to provide detailed and considered analysis of what has occurred in Libya 2011. This book gives informed and nuanced accounts of the different aspects and actors of Libya's revolution and is destined to become an essential handbook for all those seeking to understand the seismic changes that have occurred and continue to unfold in the country." -- Michael Willis, King Mohamed VI Fellow in Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, and author of Politics and Power in the Maghreb: Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring "The most complete picture we have yet had of the Libyan revolution and its aftermath ... a compelling and troubling read." -- Justin Marozzi, The National "This is an important book that deserves a wide readership. With more than a dozen books published on the Libyan revolution, this is the first in which the contributors share extensive professional experience, a thorough knowledge of the literature, and recent fieldwork in Libya. The result is a detailed, nuanced account of the revolution and its aftermath." -- Ronald Bruce St John, author Libya: Continuity and Change and Libya: From Colony to Revolution "Making sense of Libya's post-war descent is difficult - but possible, as The Libyan Revolution and its Aftermath, a timely collection of essays on the country, shows." -- The Petroleum Economist "By explaining the mosaic of Libya's various sub-national loyalties and identities and their origins, The Libyan Revolution and its Aftermath provides a useful antidote to day-to-day media coverage, which sometimes reduces Libyan political disputes to a binary struggle between Islamists and secularists, or East and West, or to tribal differences. It underlines the difficulty of forging a new political and economic framework that recognizes these differences but channels them into a pluralistic and tolerant vision." -- The Times Literary Supplement "Libya's revolution was a complex story of multiple uprisings from geographically, ideologically and tribally distinct areas...Cole and McQuinn's contributors offer compelling narratives that portray the main actors and the rivalries within and between each of these camps." -- Survival