This new four-volume collection of cutting-edge and canonical scholarship counters the oft-cited opinion that studies of Middle Eastern politics are devoid of social scientific theory and method by providing an overview of the state of the scholarship in the field, innovations therein, and the debates that have advanced knowledge in the field.

The collection covers the Arab world, from Morocco to the borders of Iran, with the focus primarily on the twentieth century, and especially the post-Second World War era. By choosing a wide array of authors, many of whom are from the region or from the non-Anglophone world, the full breadth of worldwide scholarship on the modern Arab world is on display. The collection defines politics broadly—in line with the most innovative current works in the field of political studies—to include not only politics at the state level, but also the public, social, and popular domains that define and shape (and are in turn defined and shaped by) politics.