Colonising Egypt

This book can be a hard read, but it is brilliant. Of interest to anyone who wants to learn about colonialism, Egypt, and Middle Eastern history in general.

This is an excellent critical work that powerfully engages how the Western colonising project unfolds, and it utilizes Egypt as its main centerpiece. Mitchell is a master when it comes to observing how divergent mindsets prevent the West and East from understanding one another. His use of Foucaldian and Derridian paradigms for describing the experience of modern power in Egypt and process of mutual discovery are amazing, entertaining and insightful. As a Western student living in the Middle East, this work compelled me to question my own mindset, lifestyle, and perceptions. This is a very important book that I would recommend to any intellectual who desires to understand colonialism and/or relate to Egypt and the Middle East.

Mitchell's writing, as stated in the reviews, takes the scholarship begun by Heidegger and continued by Derrida and Foucault and applies it to his critique of 19th century colonialism. The ideas of deconstruction and its fight to overturn both complete objectivity and the hope of "overcoming the system" lead Mitchell to demonstrate that the West and its objectivity is rooted in as much subjectivity as any other cultural perspective. It is this Western rationale that brought European colonialists to impose their values and hierarchies onto the Oriental system, bringing the power structures of Foucault's discourses to the fore. Whatever conclusion you come to take from the book, and Mitchell's arguments are exceptionally convincing, you will certainly not leave its pages with the same mindset you entered.