Inside Tunisia’s al-Nahda: Between Politics and Preaching
(Cambridge University Press, 2018)
In this book Rory McCarthy examines Tunisia’s leading Islamist movement, al-Nahda, to ask how it transformed itself over time from religious movement to political party. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and hundreds of hours of interviews with grassroots activists, he explains how the movement survived two decades of repression and reveals what price it paid for a new strategy of pragmatism and reform during the Tunisian democratic transition.
Inside Tunisia’s al-Nahda was chosen as one of the Foreign Affairs best books of 2019. Reviewed in: Foreign Affairs, Perspectives on Politics, The Journal of North African Studies, Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, and Choice Reviews. Read the introduction here.
Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated: Stories from the New Iraq
(Chatto & Windus, 2006)
In 2003 Rory McCarthy went to Iraq to cover what was claimed to be the triumphant rebuilding of a nation after the American invasion. Two years later he left a place teetering on the brink of civil war, whose inhabitants longed for the Americans to leave but feared what would happen if they did. This is the story of Iraq told through the eyes of some of its people, a people who were fatally misunderstood. It is a story of a nation in turmoil.
Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated was shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Biography/Non-fiction Award 2007 & the Authors Club Dolman Best First Travel Book Award 2007. Reviewed in: The Independent, The Observer, The Guardian, The Irish Times, and The Tablet.