This book offers a novel, incisive and wide-ranging account of Libya's "17 February Revolution" by tracing how critical towns, communities and political groups helped to shape its course. Each community, wheter geographical (e.g. Beni Walid) or political (e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood) tooks its own path into the uprisings and subsequent conflict of 2011, according to their own histories and relationship to Muammar Gaddafi's regime. The story of each group is told by the authors, based on reportage and expert analysis, from the outbreak of protests in Benghazi in February 2011 through to the transitional period following the end of fighting in October 2011. They describe the emergence of Libya's new politics through the unique stories of those who made it happen, or those who fought against it.-- From the publisher.

Introduction /Peter Cole and Brian McQuinn -- The revolution and its governance. Libya's uncertain revolution / Dirk Vandewalle -- The corridor of uncertainty : the National Transitional Council's battle for legitimacy and recognition / Peter Bartu -- The fall of Tripoli : part 1 / Peter Cole with Umar Khan -- The fall of Tripoli : part 2 / Peter Cole with Umar Khan -- NATO's intervention / Frederic Wehrey -- The United Nations' role in the first year of the transition / Ian Martin -- Confronting Qadhafi's legacy : transitional justice in Libya / Marieke Wierda -- Sub-national identities and narratives. Finding their place : Libya's Islamists during and after the revolution / Mary Fitzgerald -- Barqa reborn? : Eastern regionalism and Libya's political transition / Sean Kane -- History's warriors : the emergence of revolutionary battalions in Misrata / Brain McQuinn -- Factionalism resurgent : the war in the Jabal Nafusa / Wolfram Lacher and Ahmed Labnouj -- Bani Walid : loyalism in a time of revolution / Peter Cole -- Libya's Tebu : living in the margins / Rebecca Murray -- Tuareg militancy and the Sahelian shockwaves of the Libyan revolution / Yvan Guichaoua.