As one of the great empires of the ancient world, Egypt pulls at the imagination with its famous pyramids and pharaohs. Its contemporary state is not so glorious given the country’s recent socio-political troubles, especially after the violence of the “Arab Spring.” One of North America’s top scholars on Egypt and the Middle East, Dr. Robert Springborg argues in his latest book Egypt (Polity Press $22.95) that the country is in a downward spiral of poor governance. Now a Vancouver resident after stints as a visiting scholar at Harvard, visiting professor at King College in London and research fellow at the Italian Institute of International Affairs, Springborg writes that Egypt’s accumulated failures under military rule, particularly since the coup that brought General Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi to power in 2013, have become so grave that the nation-state is at risk of collapsing.

BOOKS:

Egypt (Polity Press 2018) $22.95  978-15095204397

[BCBW 2018]