"Egyptian economist Galal Amin here takes on the terms of the debate between the Arab world and the west. Amin deconstructs in his own inimitable style the language and underlying assumptions with which the west habitually assails Arab countries and politics. In Amin's view, the western concepts of progress and backwardness as they apply to the Arab world are wrong-headed, and continuing to deploy them as theoretical tools leads into all sorts of blind alleys. True to form, Amin's analysis is laced with scholarly research, much humanity, and sly, subtle humor. His critique of the much-discussed UNDP Arab Human Development Report represents a welcome and reasoned Arab reply to this document that has been too frequently used as a cudgel to bash the Arab world. The Illusion of Progress in the Arab World is a deftly argued critique of the way Arab societies are judged by the west."--BOOK JACKET.

Translated from the Arabic, Khurāfat al-taqaddum wa-al-taʼakhkhur : al-ʻArab wa-al-ḥaḍārah al-Gharbīyah fī mustahil al-qarn al-wāḥid wa-al-ʻishrīn, published in Madīnat Naṣr, al-Qāhirah by Dār al-Shurūq, 2005--T.p. verso.

Economic development -- Human development -- Freedom -- Democracy -- Capitalism -- Human rights -- The information revolution -- Ethics -- Terrorism -- Progress backward? -- Modernization or reform?.