How does one tell the story of a revolutionary moment when the cataclysmic events are still underway, when the future remains remarkably uncertain, and where upheavals continue to characterise the day-to-day conduct of politics? Gilbert Achcar's The People Want provides a felicitous response to this question. ... Any reader who would like a clear-eyed, theoretically grounded, and lucid assessment of what the Arab uprisings have wrought so far would benefit from this book. -- Laleh Khalili The Middle East in London Telling a story-let alone one as complicated as that of the Arab uprisings and their historical lineage-from beginning to end is a task few can complete. And by 'from beginning to end,' I don't mean a linear, deterministic narrative but an account that is whole. Yet this is what Gilbert Achcar's The People Want manages to do. This is the first book to locate the Arab uprisings within a broad historical sweep... What this book does, in essence, is extend an invitation to the reader to leave a hall of mirrors that often guides explanations of the uprisings of the Arab world. Once we accompany Gilbert out of and away from the freak show that is mainstream scholarship about the Middle East, historical events and conceptual constructs start to take a completely different shape. -- Maha Abdelrahman Jadaliyya While some readers may be distracted by Achcar's unabashedly Marxist analysis, the strength and long-range view of his socio-economic insights should overcome such reluctance. ... His insights offer a reasoned practical hope, whereas other analysts on the left offer doom and gloom. Moreover, Achcar's chapter providing a balance sheet of what has been achieved so far in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Syria, as well as an assessment of future prospects in each country, is indispensable. -- Andrew Stimson Washington Report on Middle East Affairs It is easy to follow the events of the Arab Spring as it continues to unfold and get excited by some developments only to have the enthusiasm dashed by new twists and turns. While it is important to not gloss over troubling data, Achcar is correct to insist that we are still in the early stages and many different roads are still open. What he says about Libya is true for the entire region: 'The game is not over yet.' New Politics Publishing a book about the Arab uprising may seem a perilous venture given how swiftly events are changing. However, Gilbert Achcar, professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, avoids the risk of being outdated by zooming in on root causes and abiding trends... The book offers a valuable, in-depth and original perspective for evaluating the popular revolts which continue to determine events in the Arab region. -- Sally Bland Jordan Times Brushing aside a host of fashionable narratives to explain the Arab spring, Gilbert Achcar's recent book offers a radically different perspective... His prophetic analysis, informed by a Marxist outlook, springs from rigorous research and deep knowledge of Arab realities. The News (Pakistan) Gilbert Achcar, the preeminent Marxist scholar of the Arab world ... attempts to get beneath surface impressions, especially those based on changing seasons... Departing from the 'game of nations' framework that is used by most commentators on MENA as a way of reducing everything to a battle between the US and an 'anti-imperialist' bloc led by Vladimir Putin, Achcar's analysis is grounded in the class relations that exist within nations like Egypt, Libya, Syria et al. -- Louis Proyect CounterPunch Before this book that have been no adequate analyses of the political economy of the Arab uprisings ... this is a great book, a must-read for all who seek a deep understanding of the root causes and the social and economic conditions that are shaping the dynamics of the Arab uprisings. -- Atef Said Solidarity Achcar's book offers a refreshingly insightful analysis ... a great book, a must-read for all who seek a deep understanding of the root causes and the social and economic conditions that are shaping the dynamics of the Arab uprisings. -- Atef Said Against the Current A detailed and searching account of the Arab Spring. -- Malise Ruthven New York Review of Books The most careful, insightful, and erudite study to date of the Arab uprising. -- Kevin B Anderson Marx and Philosophy Gilbert Achcar's The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising provides not only a definitive and comprehensive overview of the uprisings but also, and more importantly, identifies the socio-economic dynamics that led to their eruption. While the first two chapters, which examine the dimensions of the socio-economic predicament, constitute the book's primary contribution, the importance of the following chapters-in which he presents an in-depth analysis of the uprisings, focusing on internal and regional factors, the sequence of the main events, and Western policy-should not be underestimated. -- Yusri Hazran Bustan: The Middle East Book Review