"Rabie examines the factors behind the waning of long-established drivers and patterns of socio-historical change, rendered increasingly inadequate by the unipolarization of the world-system and the totalizing pressures of global capitalism. He dissects keenly their combined homogenizing impact on modern political, socioeconomic, cultural, and ideological markers, and suggests in the process novel paradigms for comprehending historical transformations in the age ... Read moreof knowledge-based economies. The result is a highly engaging and erudite analysis of the contemporary condition of Arab and Western societies." - Osama Abi-Mershed, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, USA "This critical view of history is a most promising intellectual event and an important step toward a better understanding of where we are in our present unresolved debate." - Manfred Stinnes, Lecturer, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Show Less