Book by UNE political scientist Ali Ahmida serialized by leading Libyan newspaper

A book by Ali Ahmida, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Political Science, was recently serialized by a leading Libyan newspaper and website. Al Wasat presented  The Libya We Do Not Know: History, Culture and Civil Society in 15 installments, beginning in November of 2017 and ending in February of 2018.

The book was originally published in 2014 by Dar-al-Hilal press in Cairo, Egypt, and the Libyan Ministry of Culture. It introduces Libya from the perspective of subaltern, ordinary people, examining their social and cultural history, and it provides a critique of the contemporary scholarship and media fixation on Qadhdhafi, oil, and terrorism.

After selling 16,000 copies, the book was republished in 2016 in an updated and expanded form, which includes a lengthy introduction that diagnoses the regional and internal causes behind the unravelling of Libya into a virtual civil war, the fighting between the two governments and the rise of the Islamic State in the city of Sirte. It also presents a strategy for conflict resolution based on past models of compromise and the need for a Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

The Libya We Do Not Know has been reviewed and discussed in Egyptian and Libyan media.

Read Al Wasat’s installments of the book in Arabic

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