Arab Nationalism sheds light on cultural expressions of Arab nationalism and the sometimes contradictory meanings attached to it in the process of identity formation in the modern world. It presents nationalism as an experienceable set of identity markers – in stories, visual culture, narratives of memory, and struggles with ideology, sometimes in culturally sophisticated forms, sometimes in utterly vulgar forms of expression. Drawing upon various case studies, the book transcends a conventional history that reduces nationalism in the Arab lands to a pattern of political rise and decline.

阿拉伯民族主义揭示了阿拉伯民族主义的文化表现形式，以及在现代世界身份形成过程中所赋予的有时相互矛盾的意义。它将民族主义表现为一组可体验的身份标记——在故事、视觉文化、记忆叙事和意识形态斗争中，有时表现为文化上复杂的形式，有时表现为完全庸俗的形式。借鉴各种案例研究，这本书超越了传统的历史，减少民族主义在阿拉伯土地上的政治上升和下降的模式。