Revolution Squared: Tahrir, Political Possibilities, and Counterrevolution in Egypt

In Revolution Squared Atef Shahat Said examines the 2011 Egyptian Revolution to trace the expansive range of liberatory possibilities and containment at the heart of every revolution. Drawing on historical analysis and his own participation in the revolution, Said outlines the importance of Tahrir Square and other physical spaces as well as the role of social media and digital spaces. He develops the notion of lived contingency-the ways revolutionary actors practice and experience the revolution in terms of the actions they do or do not take-to show how Egyptians made sense of what was possible during the revolution. Said charts the lived contingencies of Egyptian revolutionaries from the decade prior to the revolution's outbreak to its peak and the so-called transition to democracy to the 2013 military coup into the present. Contrary to retrospective accounts and counterrevolutionary thought, Said argues that the Egyptian Revolution was not doomed to defeat. Rather, he demonstrates that Egyptians did not fully grasp their immense clout and that limited reformist demands reduced the revolution's potential for transformation.

Table of Contents:
Note on Transliteration  xii Acknowledgments  xv Introduction. Revolution as Lived Contingency  1 1. Prelude to Revolutionary Possibilities: Tahrir and Political Protest in Egypt  31 2. Peak of Revolutionary Possibilities: Squared I: How the Revolution Was “Bound” within Tahrir  57 3. Sovereignty in the Street: Popular Committees, Revolutionary Ambivalence, and Unrealized Power  87 4. The Two Souls of the Egyptian Revolution: Democratic Demands, Radical Strikes  112 5. Waning Revolutionary Possibilities: Squared II: Counterrevolutionary Coercion and Elections without Democratization  147 6. Square Zero: The State, Counterrevolutionary Paranoia, and the Withdrawal of Activists  178 Conclusion: Revolution as Experience  210 Appendix 1. Brief Timeline of the Egyptian Revolution, 2011–2018  227 Appendix 2. A Note on Positionality  231 Appendix 3. Notes on Methods, or How I Conducted Historical Ethnography of a Revolution  235 Appendix 4. Major Political Coalitions in Egypt, 2000–2010  251 Notes  263 References  289 Index  325

About the Author :
Atef Shahat Said is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of two books in Arabic.

Review :
“Revolution Squared is an exciting book that presents a new and insightful framework for understanding the 2011 uprising in Egypt and its aftermath. Atef Shahat Said’s first-person narratives and astute sociological analysis offer a compelling perspective on the organization and longue durÉe of the revolutionary process. This is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary uprisings, in Egypt and beyond.” - Jessica Winegar, author of (Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt) "The book will be of great value to those interested in the relations among urban protests, democracy, and revolution, as well as those who employ multiple and divergent research methods (covered in appendix 3) to explain multifaceted phenomena." - Dena Qaddumi (American Ethnologist) “Atef Shahat Said’s thoughtful book Revolution Squared examines the hopes and disappointments of Egypt’s pro-democracy activists, theorizing revolution and counterrevolution alongside the activists’ own attempts to understand how they succeeded so dramatically in 2011 and were defeated so decisively in 2013.” - Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Atef Said’s stimulating new book . . . refreshingly sets aside the chicken-or-egg approach to Egypt’s 2011 revolution, centering instead the dualities that characterized it from start (2011) to finish (2013). . . . Revolution Squared may not have all the answers. But it points the way to formulating deeper, more resonant questions." - Mona El-Ghobashy (Middle East Journal) "THE INSIGHTS THAT Atef Shahat Said gained into Egypt’s politics of protest and mobilization - through his work and political activities before he embarked on an academic career - deeply enrich Revolution Squared, a participant-observer account of what is widely called Egypt’s January 25, 2011 revolution. . . . The value of Revolution Squared is not so much its contribution to the debate over whether or not this is an appropriate definition of a revolutionary situation. Rather, Said invites us to follow him as he guides us through the day-to-day struggles among the leftists, Islamists and liberals whose only point of agreement - embraced tactically by the military when its commanders felt there was no better choice - was the removal of President Hosni Mubarak." - Joel Beinin (Against the Current) "Revolution Squared is a call to re-evaluate and enrich our understanding of the Egyptian revolution. It adds to the literature on contentious politics in the Middle East specifically, and social movements theories broadly. It puts forward a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to studying episodes of contention in the region. Its analysis offers a critical framework to study and capture the inherent uncertainties that traditionally characterize social movements." - Nermin Allam (Mobilization)