Civil Uprisings in Modern Sudan - (Modern History of Politics and Violence) by W J Berridge (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

In the wake of the protests that toppled regimes across the Middle East in 2011, Sudanese activists and writers have proudly cited their very own 'Arab Springs' of 1964 and 1985, which overthrew the country's first two military regimes, as evidence of their role as political pioneers in the region. Whilst some of these claims may be exaggerated, Sudan was indeed unique in the region at the time in that it witnessed not one but two popular uprisings which successfully uprooted military authoritarianisms.

Civil Uprisings in Modern Sudan provides the first scholarly book-length history of the 1964 and 1985 uprisings. It explores the uprisings themselves, their legacy and the contemporary relevance they hold in the context of the current political climate of the Middle East. The book also contends that the sort of politics espoused by various kinds of Islamist during the uprisings can be interpreted as a form of early 'post-Islamism', in which Islamist political agendas were seen to be compatible with liberalism and democracy.

Using interviews, Arabic language sources and a wealth of archival material, this book is an important and original study that is of great significance for scholars of African and Middle Eastern political history.

Review Quotes

"[An] outstanding contribution to a strong tradition of Sudanese history." --Sudan Studies Association

"Berridge has dug deeply into contemporary Arabic- and English-language accounts of the revolutions and the short democratic periods that followed them, and conducted an impressive number of interviews with the students, trade unionists, lawyers, politicians and soldiers who played prominent roles in 1964 and 1985 ... [The book] stands as the definitive account of two curiously overlooked revolutions" --Times Literary Supplement

"An exceptional book which, notwithstanding a mass of detail, makes the reader want to know more." --Sudan Studies

"The uprisings have been mythologized more than they have been rigorously documented and analyzed. W.J. Berridge's superb book fills that gap ... [He] scrupulously avoids the risk of writing history backwards: the stories of these uprisings and their sequelae are recounted with the historian's eye to the contingencies of events and the uncertainties facing the protagonists ... This is a fine book: modern history at its best." --Alex de Waal, Director of the World Peace Foundation, African Arguments

"In contrast to more recent, well-documented uprisings in Sudan, which have resulted in UN indictments against the current president, this political history recounts two previous popular revolts with more positive outcomes ... Through mining interviews, archival material, and newspaper accounts, mostly in the Arab vernacular, Berridge considers the two political cycles, analyzing the roles played by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Communist and other political parties, as well as the universities. The result is a detailed, informative account of these relatively underreported and little-understood political events for the English-speaking world. In the conclusion of this admirable study, Berridge raises the questions of why this cycle repeated itself and why the Sudan has not had a more recent Arab Spring. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." --W. Arens, Stony Brook University, CHOICE

"Well-researched and detail-oriented ... a useful resource for those interested in Sudanese contemporary political history." --American Historical Review

"Berridge's analysis of the Sudanese revolutions provides significant insights into the political processes of revolution and civilian protest. This book should be an important resource for anyone who wants to go beyond general theories to an understanding of the actual dynamics of secular and religious politics in the Muslim world in both the 20th and the 21st centuries." --John O. Voll, Middle East Journal

"The important question as to why Sudan is left out of discussions of the Arab Spring, despite its two successful democratic uprisings against military rule in 1964 and 1985, is addressed in detail. Berridge adds important documentation of these historic revolutions to the decades of scholarly acknowledgement of Sudan's multiple marginality in both the Arab world and in Africa, too African to be Arab and too Arab to be African." --Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Rhode Island College, USA and editor of the Bulletin of the Sudan Studies Association

"This superb book is a thorough study of two popular Sudanese revolutions in 1964 and 1985 that restored liberal democracy after the removal of entrenched military dictatorships...It is hoped that Civil Uprisings in Modern Sudan's rediscovery of the dynamics of Sudan civil society comprising unionism, incessant imagining of the nation, civil disobedience, general strikes, youthful martyrs, songs of revolutionary passion, national debates of Islamism, Marxism, traditionalism, modernity, and secularism will retool the on-going efforts to bring peace to the country." --Abdullahi Ibrahim, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Missouri, USA

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