SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

How would you begin the describe the approach taken by Robert Worth in Rage For Order?  What are the strengths and weaknesses of the book?  What is missing from this book?  What most surprised you?

Who is Robert Worth and how do you think his background and experiences influence his perspective in Rage For Order?

Worth's book combines an exploration of larger themes with a focus on individual nations as case studies.  What is most distinctive about the recent history of each of the following nations?  Where would you begin in trying to make sense of that history?  How would you frame these history against a backdrop that includes discussion of common region-wide themes?

Libya

Yemen

Tunisia

Syria

Egypt

What role does the 2011 Arab Spring play in Worth's account?  What happened in 2011 and how to explain it?  How would you fit 2011 into a coherent narrative of Middle Eastern history that imposes some overall order upon the developments, trajectories, and tensions that have characterized the region since that time?

What is the idea of the caliphate and what place does it assume in Worth's chronicle?

How would you compare and contrast the story of revolution told by Worth in Rage For Order with that told by Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis?  What points of connection do you notice between the two books?

A recurrent strategy of Worth is to explore larger issues through introducing us to some less-famous citizens?  What character or characters did you find most compelling here, and why?

Key historical individuals and terms are listed below.  Identify some of the following and what you learned about each from Rage For Order.

Individuals:

Bashar Al Assad

Hafez Al Assad

Abu Bakr Al Bahdadi

Muhammad Beltagy

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

Muhammad Morsi

Hosni Mubarak

Muammar Qaddafi

Ali Abdullah Saleh

Abdelfattah Al Sisi

Terms:

Alawis

Al Qaeda

Daraa

Ennahda

Huthis

Islamic State

Muslim Brotherhood

Rabaa al-Adawiya Square

Tahrir Square