One of the most popular — and controversial — Arab rulers in contemporary history gets a critical and engaging reappraisal in We Are Your Soldiers by Lebanon-based journalist Alex Rowell.

Gamal Abdel Nasser first seized the reins of power in Egypt in 1952 after leading a group called the “Free Officers” in a coup d’état against King Farouk. From then until his death from a heart attack in 1970, Nasser ruled with a clenched, gloveless fist and sought to export his revolutionary vision of pan-Arabism to neighboring countries. Over the course of his reign, Nasser polarized opinion in the Middle East among “the same old camps of fanatical supporters versus mortal foes.” But more than 50 years after his passing, Nasser remains a crucial figure to understanding today’s Middle East, the author contends.

After the “seismic revolt” of the Arab Spring in 2011, which Rowell says was an attempt to overthrow the structures of the Nasser era, the need for a “revised and expanded” history of Nasser’s time has never been more urgent. Bolstered by new information available in English for the first time, along with extensive interviews, Rowell’s investigation focuses on Nasser’s encounters with seven countries: Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, and Libya. These encounters, he says, were often “drenched in blood and destruction” and left scars that have yet to heal.

As Egypt’s president, Nasser established his legend after he nationalized the Suez Canal in July 1956 and survived a land invasion by Israeli, British, and French forces (but only after President Dwight Eisenhower squashed — via a ceasefire — the attempt to retake the canal). Despite owing his regime’s survival to America, Rowell argues, the image of a triumphant Nasser as a “new Saladin, vanquisher of the Crusaders” resonated deeply at home and across the Arab world. Nasser’s dream of a pan-Arab empire soared after the victory of Suez and led to Egypt formally merging with Syria in 1958 as the “United Arab Republic,” which marked the pinnacle of Nasser’s popularity. (It was a short-lived union, alas, as Syria exited in 1961.)

While Rowell does yeoman’s work charting the shifting alliances and rivalries embedded within the region, the encyclopedic level of detail at times is eye-watering. The structure of the book can also be chronologically confusing, as every chapter covers Nasser’s relationship to each of the seven Arab states rather than offer a linear presentation of events. Violence abounds in often graphic detail, too, as Rowell’s research into Nasser’s depredations against his own people (authors, intellectuals, and communists come in for special abuse) makes for gory reading. Torture, assassination, and mind-bending brutality in Nasser’s “concentration camps” were all means to fortifying his “authoritarian castle,” Rowell explains.

The nuanced psychological insights that the author applies throughout his narrative paint a tyrannical portrait of Nasser as a man who could not leave other Arab states alone; “everyone had to fall in line behind Cairo.” This included the likes of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Syrian president Hafiz al-Assad, both of whom spent time in Cairo under Nasser’s protection before returning to their own countries and staging their own takeovers.

The ledger of Nasser’s nefarious doings is long, but the worst was the war Egypt fought against Yemen between 1962 and 1967, the decision during which to use chemical weapons on the battlefield being “the darkest stain” on Nasser’s record, according to Rowell. The war (“entirely unprovoked”) claimed 20,000 Yemeni lives and saw Nasser at “his most unhinged, his most irrational, and most atrocious.”

Nasser, “the godfather of Arab politics,” left bloody fingerprints across the Arab world, and We Are Your Soldiers effectively reveals how his legacy continues to haunt the Middle East.

Peggy Kurkowski is a professional copywriter for a higher-education IT nonprofit association by day and major history nerd at night. She writes for multiple book review publications, including Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, BookBrowse Review, Historical Novels Review, Open Letters Review, Shelf Awareness, and the Independent. She hosts her own YouTube channel, “The History Shelf,” where she features and reviews history books (new and old), as well as a variety of fiction. She lives in Colorado with her partner (quite possibly the funniest Irish woman alive) and four adorable, ridiculous dogs.

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