Table of Contents

Introduction Robert Fisk vii

Foreword xi

1 The Arabs are the Most Wretched People in the World Today, Even if They Do Not Realize It 1

2 A Deep Sense of Malaise Permeates Every Corner of the Arab World 15

3 The Arab Malaise is a Period of History and it is Now More Acute than it Was Before 31

4 Modernity Was Not the Cause of the Arab Malaise 43

5 The Arab Malaise is Not the Result of Modernity but of Modernity's Collapse 53

6 The Arabs' Malaise is More a Function of Their Geography than Their History 67

7 The Worst Aspect of the Arabs' Malaise is Their Refusal to Emerge from it, But, If Happiness is Not in Sight, Some form of Equilibrium at Least is Possible 79

Notes 93