RELLI SHECHTER. The Rise of the Egyptian Middle Class: Socio-Economic Mobility and Public Discontent from Nasser to Sadat (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019). 280pp. $105.00 cloth. ISBN 9781108474481.

purpose of the reforms is “more political than educational” (100), and that the Egyptian “government is seeking to privatize education at all levels” (90). To be clear, those propositions cannot be ruled out, and there are in fact plenty of grounds to critique Egypt’s reform program (with regards to new forms of privatization, for instance). But the lack of real evidence or understanding of actual policy change on the ground makes these conclusions questionable at best. In their conclusion, the editors make the overdue note that the volume is neither “firmly empirically grounded” nor “a definitive investigation.” Rather, it is speculative, “consist[s] of diverse observations and even predictions” and is “intended not to test hypotheses” but to “broaden perspectives on Arab education” (253-54). This volume thus signals the urgent need for work on education in the Arab world that is empirically rich, theoretically robust, methodologically rigorous, and strongly evidenced – which are unfortunately underdeveloped in this volume, at least for Egypt. Political economy is a valid lens to study educational change, but it would enormously benefit from authors who possess a deeper understanding of local contexts and experience in education in the Arab world.