Public Islam and the Common Good

Advancing levels of education, greater east of travel, and the rise of new communications media throughout the Muslim-majority world have contributed to the emergence of a public sphere in which large numbers of people--not just an educated, political, and economic elite--want a say in political and religious issues, say the contributing anthropologists, historians, and religious scholars, almost all from the US and Europe. They look beyond immediate events to trace long-term trends from coffeehouses of the Ottoman Empire to the near future. This is a paperbound reprint of a 2004 book. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Armando Salvatore is Reader in Comparative Historical Sociology and Social Theory at Humboldt University, Berlin. His recent books include Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies (2005, coedited with Mark LeVine), Islam in Process: Historical and Civilizational Perspectives (2006, coedited with Johann P. Arnason and Georg Stauth), and The Public Sphere: Between Tradition and Modernity (2007).Dale F. Eickelman is Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations at Dartmouth College (USA). His recent books include The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach, 4th ed. (2002) and, coauthored with James Piscatori, Muslim Politics, new ed. (2003). He also coedited with Jon W. Anderson New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere, 2nd ed. (2003).