Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War

Robin Yassin-Kassab, Leila Al-Shami

Paperback

9780745337821

Burning Country explores the complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first-hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists. Yassin-Kassab and Al-Shami expertly interweave these stories with an incisive analysis of the militarization of the uprising, the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of Syria’s government in exacerbating the brutalization of the conflict. Through these accounts and a broad range of secondary source material, the authors persuasively argue that the international community has failed in its stated commitments to support the Syrian opposition movements.

Covering ISIS and Islamism, regional geopolitics, new grassroots revolutionary organizations, and the worst refugee crisis since World War Two, Burning Country is a vivid and groundbreaking look at a modern-day political and humanitarian nightmare.

Contents:

1 Revolution From Above

2 Bashaar’s First Decade

3 Revolution From Below

4 The Grassroots

5 Militarisation and Liberation

6 Scorched Earth – The Rise of the Islamisms

7 Dispossession and Exile

8 Culture Revolutionised

9 The Failure of the Elites

10 The Start of Solidarity