“[This] book is timely, rich, and useful. Maghraoui contributes a rich and interesting study that has significant value not only for understanding the past but for comprehending the present and the future as well. . . . Liberalism Without Democracy is useful for scholars seeking to understand democratic change, or the lack thereof, in the Middle East and beyond . . . [This book] promises to be a major contribution to the study of Middle East politics in the years to come.” — Mahmoud Hamad, Comparative Political Studies
“Abdeslam Maghraoui’s engaging book Liberalism without Democracy presents a fresh and original reading of the intellectual evolution in Egypt in the interwar period.” — Israel Gershoni, American Journal of Sociology
“Maghraoui’s book is concise, clearly argued, and nicely packaged.” — Joel Gordon, Middle East Journal
“Maghraoui’s interpretation of the failure of the liberal democratic experiment in Egypt is an interesting approach to the literature of this period of Egypt’s history. It Is also a word of caution to present day westernized elites in the Middle East and those enthusiastically hailing the emergence of a western-style democracy around them.” — Federico Velez, Canadian Journal of History
“This is a valuable book. [This is not] simply a thorough, detailed study of Egyptian politics. . . . [It] is much more than that. It is relevant to the present American misadventure in Iraq and to Western imperialism more generally. . . . Perhaps no one else has thoroughly documented, as well as Maghraoui, the extent to which some “liberal” writers tried to mimic the West. The author has provided much compelling evidence to support the ideas of those scholars who decry the confusion between modernization and Westernization.” — Glenn Perry, Middle East Studies Digest
“This is an important and powerful book. . . .The research . . . is impressive and comprehensive. Maghraoui has done his homework, reading the essays of the liberal intellectuals and digging deeply into their major daily and weekly journals.” — Robert Tignor, The Historian
“Liberalism without Democracy raises fundamentally important issues and is incredibly timely and relevant to current debates in the Middle East about democratization and foreign intervention.” — Diane Singerman, coeditor of Cairo Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and Urban Space in the New Globalized Middle East
“Abdeslam Maghraoui’s book is among the more cogent recent explanations of the reasons liberalism failed in the Middle East. Through its examination of the role of language and culture in Egypt, Liberalism without Democracy sheds light on a central weakness of liberalism—its commitment to individual liberty and colonial conquest.” — Edmund Burke III, coeditor of After the Colonial Turn: Orientalism, History, and Theory