Nasser

What this book lacks in analytic strength it makes up for in psychological immediacy and firsthand political color. By comparison, the more industrious studies by Anthony Nutting (Nasser, 1972) and Robert Stephens (Nasser, 1972) seem pedestrian. Lacouture is a well-known liberal French journalist with personal knowledge of Nasser and Egypt; his sketches of rural life, the sociology of the army, Nasser's youth, etc., are so refreshingly sophisticated that the reader tends to pardon the book's journalistic lapses. Questions eventually persist, however: what was the Anglo-versus-American stake in the overthrow of Farouk? Did the Nasser regime's affinities with classical dictatorships and European fascist movements mean more than Lacouture's coy hints would indicate? The strength of Nasser's original affiliation with the West, and the way he kept the army from becoming an independent force (a success which, the book suggests, helps explain the army's weakness vis-a-vis the Israelis) exemplify the important interpretations Lacouture somewhat casually tosses off. The London Times Literary Supplement has already lengthily identified various undeveloped and unsubstantiated claims here; but the most important criticism is Lacouture's semi-infatuation with ""a man of power,"" which undermines his best insights, a posture already exposed in his Egypt in Transition (1967) and The Demigods (1970), from both of which, it should be noted, this book draws on heavily. However, readers who share Lacouture's fascination with the Nasser characterology, will enjoy the book.