ISB Libguides: G8 Humanities: Arab Spring: Home

Library Databases

ABC-Clio World History: The Modern Era
World History: The Modern Era provides for comprehensive study of the emergence of the modern world, covering the history of the world from 1500 to the present. Students will learn about the evolution of modern Europe since the Renaissance; concurrent developments in Asia, Africa, and the Islamic world; the global impact of the Industrial Revolution; revolutions in France and Latin America; imperialism; nationalism; World Wars I and II; growing global powers, and more.
Gale in Context - Middle School
Content is written explicitly for middle school students on a variety of topics, including government, U.S. and world history, geography, literature, science, and social issues.
Off-Campus access password: resource
ProQuest SIRS Issues Researcher
SIRS Issues Researcher is an editorially curated pro/con database designed for middle and high school students, university undergraduates, instructors, and librarians.
World Book
One of the best encyclopedias there is. Offers breaking news stories, and background in formation on a large number of topics.

World Book Online

Arab Spring is a term used to describe a series of political and social movements in northern Africa and the Middle East in 2010 and 2011. The Arab Spring was characterized by antigovernment protests and pro-democracy demonstrations. In many countries, the movements met with violent government reaction. In some places, protests forced government leaders from power. In others, the Arab Spring led to bloody conflict.

A common thread of the Arab Spring was a desire for democracy. In many of the countries affected by the movement, autocratic (undemocratic) leaders had been in place for decades. The Arab Spring was led by young people, many of whom used social media (Web-based and mobile technologies) to communicate and organize. Despite the name Arab Spring, not all participants were Arabs.

Read more here: Cuno, Kenneth M., and Jake Bumgardner. "Arab Spring." World Book Student, 2025,
www.worldbookonline.com/student-new/#/article/home/ar755315. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.

Timeline

Citation: "Arab Spring Timeline." ProQuest, 2011. ProQuest; SIRS Issues Researcher, https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2257235458?accountid=4047.

Websites

What is the Arab Spring, and how did it start?
From Al Jazerra. Ten years ago, revolts spread like wildfire across the Arab world, spurring events that changed the region.
Ottoman Empire
From WorldBook Online. Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in the world during the 1500's and 1600's. At its height, it controlled what is now Turkey and parts of northern Africa, southwestern Asia, and southeastern Europe. The empire began about 1300 and lasted until 1922.
What was the Arab Spring and how did it spread?
From National Geographic. The wave of protests and civil unrest that swept the Arab world ushered in some changes, showing that peaceful demonstrations have power.

Search Terms

Try these search terms when searching online:

1. Background to the Middle East

"Ottoman Empire" AND history
"Middle East" AND "World War I"
"Sykes-Picot Agreement" OR "Middle East map changes"
"Arab countries" AND formation
"Middle East" AND timeline
"Ottoman Empire" AND rise AND fall
"Arab nationalism" AND independence

2. The Spark of the Revolution: Tunisia

"Tunisian Revolution" AND causes
"Mohamed Bouazizi" AND protest
"Zine El Abidine Ben Ali" AND Tunisia
"Tunisian Revolution" AND impact
"Tunisia" AND "Arab Spring"

3. The Role of Social Media

"social media" AND "Arab Spring"
"Facebook" OR "Twitter" AND "Arab Spring"
"social media" AND protests
"Facebook" AND launch year
"social media" AND news spread

4. Key Figures and Global Change

"Hosni Mubarak" AND Egypt
"Muammar Gaddafi" AND Libya
"Ali Abdullah Saleh" AND Yemen
"Bashar al-Assad" AND Syria
"Mohamed Morsi" AND Egypt
"Arab Spring" AND world reactions
"Arab Spring" AND country changes

5. Legacy and Reflection

"Arab Spring" AND results
"Arab Winter" AND what happened
"revolution patterns" AND "Arab Spring"
"causes and effects of revolutions" AND "Arab Spring"
"lessons from the Arab Spring" AND democracy
"current democracy" AND "Arab countries"

Librarian

Kelly Phillips

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Subjects: Middle School, Professional, Whole School

In the Library

A Rage for Order by Robert F. Worth
ISBN: 9780374252946
Publication Date: 2016-04-26
A New York Times Notable Book of 2016 One of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2016, Publishers Weekly One of the Best Books of 2016, NPR Winner of the 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize One of 20 Notable Reads from 2016, Mother Jones Finalist for the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Current Interest Silver Medal Winner of the 2017 Arthur Ross Book Award In 2011, a wave of revolution spread through the Middle East as protesters demanded an end to tyranny, corruption, and economic decay. From Egypt to Yemen, a generation of young Arabs insisted on a new ethos of common citizenship. Their bravery and idealism stirred observers around the world and led militant jihadis to worry that they had been superseded by a new and peaceful uprising. Five years later, the utopian aspirations of 2011 have darkened. In one country after another, brutal terrorists and dictators have risen to the top as old divides reemerge and deepen. Egypt has become a more repressive police state than ever before; Libya, Syria, and Yemen endure civil war; and the extremists of ISIS have spread chaos and carnage across the region and beyond it. A Rage for Order tracks the tormented legacy of what was once called the Arab Spring. Writing with bold literary ambition, the distinguished New York Times correspondent Robert F. Worth introduces a riveting cast of characters. We meet a Libyan rebel who must decide whether to kill the torturer who murdered his brother; a Yemeni farmer who lives in servitude to a poetry-writing, dungeon-operating chieftain; two young Syrian women whose close friendship devolves into enmity as their sects go to war; and an Egyptian doctor who is caught between his loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood and his hopes for a new, tolerant democracy. In a final chapter, Worth tells the moving story of the two eighty-something statesmen whose unlikely camaraderie allowed Tunisia to escape its neighbors' worst fates. Combining dramatic storytelling with an original analysis of the Arab world today, A Rage for Order captures the psychic and actual civil wars raging throughout the Middle East and explains how the dream of an Arab renaissance gave way to a new age of discord.