In Praise of Books: A Cultural History of Cairo's Middle Class, Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (Middle East Studies Beyond Dominant Paradigms)

Rating:
Summary: In Praise of Old Wine in New Bottles
Review: "Old wine in new bottles" is the order of the day as the author manipulates the evidence in support of a rabidly nationalist, turcophobic agenda, masquerading unconvincingly behind trendy European economic and social theory. She never really defines what the "middle class" is but keeps insisting that it is somehow different from the equally ill-defined "ruling class." Her inability to use Turkish sources or to make obvious comparisons to other parts of the Ottoman Empire is a major drawback. Her tone is high-handed and dismissive, even as she ignores much pertinent scholarship.