Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Sudan. As one might expect, the chapters vary in length and detail that often times correlates to the level of uprising that happened in each country. One finds lengthy chapters on Egypt, Libya, Syria, and, interestingly, Sudan. Each of these chapters would be an excellent primer on these countries for those not intimately familiar with their rich histories.

While the shorter chapters tend to cover countries that had small, easily quelled uprisings or no uprising at all, that is not true of the chapter on Tunisia. The chapter on Tunisia, the first in the book, is an excellent way to introduce the reader to this book and its aims. This chapter is the most hopeful in the book and clearly lays out why Tunisians turned against Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. As one reads the book certain themes about the reasons behind the Arab Spring begin to …