Walter Armbrust. Martyr's and Tricksters: An Ethnography of the Egyptian Revolution. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019). Pp. 311. $27.95 cloth. ISBN 9780691162645.

Abstract

Although there are now many studies of the Arab revolutions, few articulate revolution with relations of class, gender, religion, and global politics as expertly as Walter Armbrust’s second monograph. Grounded in insightful media analysis and thick ethnography, Martyrs and Tricksters entwines local histories with global realities while taking seriously not only the revolutionary heroes that star in most academic studies, but also those who are pro-regime. Taking a chronological approach to the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the book begins with an ethnography of the initial eighteen days and it ends in the wake of the 2013 Raba’a Massacre. Despite its chronological organization, the book is not concerned with causality. Instead, it investigates what happens in the space of a social and political void from which there is no apparent exit. One of its major strengths, then, is its intentional focus on the ambiguous and unintentional, capturing the confusion and uncertainty of experiencing a revolution in real time. Another strength is the breadth of the book’s analysis, which weaves Ramadan serials, memes, YouTube videos, television talk shows, Facebook posts, and music (mahraganat) together with first-person accounts of demonstrations. Most broadly, Martyrs and Tricksters reveals the relevance of the Egyptian revolution to contemporary global politics, providing an important case study of how unthinkable realities can emerge from globalized neoliberal crisis. One of the book’s major contributions is establishing liminality as a useful concept for understanding revolutions. Drawing from Victor Turner’s theory of ritual process, the first chapter defines liminality as a characteristic of all transitions between normative states through which different possibilities can be entertained (3). Because liminality is dangerous, it is usually managed by conventions and rituals to ensure expected transition (e.g., social rites of passage). A revolution, in contrast, is an unforeseen transition, a passage through liminality that lacks clear control of the Review of Middle East Studies, 54(2), 352–362 © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Middle East Studies Association of North America, Inc.