answer. It is only toward the end of this chapter that Mo- reau tries to anchor the volume in the historiography of modern Mediterranean studies and colonial studies (but cites only one source in the latter). Ironically, it is in the preface, penned by Edmund Burke III, that readers are offered a more coherent analysis of the possible contribu- tions of this volume. A central theme in the book is obvi- ously the networks. However, stating that the networks are important is hardly a novelty, and deciphering net- works is only half the job. What was required was for the editor to tell us what constitutes a “Muslim Mediterra- nean;” to tell us how and what networks, revealed through the itineraries provided, define such a spatial, and presumably an analytical, category; and to tell us how the rapid changes in the Mediterranean affected and shaped human networks. There is enough literature on networks involving the Mediterranean that Moreau did not consult, let alone refer to (for example, Amal Ghazal, Islamic Reform and Arab Nationalism: Expanding the Crescent from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, 1880s–1930s [2010]; Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860–1914 [2010]; and James Gelvin and Nile Green, eds., Global Muslims in the Age of Steam and Print [2013]). Moreau could have been better guided by Julia Clancy-Smith’s chapter, by far the strongest contribution, and an exemplary one in terms of analyzing and contextu- alizing networks in colonial North Africa, to tightly frame the purpose of this book. The almost haphazard manner with which the introductory chapter is written is best seen in the casual reference to “freedom” as a theme in the book. With three chapters dealing with individuals of ex- slave lineage, the editor could have used the material to probe the importance of the slavery legacy in the region in understanding Mediterranean history and in shaping, or not, a Mediterranean analytical space. This missed op- portunity to engage with such an important theme exem- plifies the shortcomings of this collection. The lack of critical analysis in the introductory chapter is echoed in most of the chapters. With the exception of Clancy-Smith’s chapter, which uses life stories to interro- gate how “networks operated both in similar and differ- ent fashion within the larger context of families, house- holds, and variant forms of French colonialism in the Ma- ghreb” (169), and Leı ¨la Blili’s on three Ottoman pioneer women whose family ties highlight how “informal net- works acted as transmitters of communications across borders,” none of the other chapters provides new meth- odological or theoretical contributions. Moreau’s chapter on Aref Taher Bey comes close in the manner in which it explores Aref Bey’s networks, but misses an opportunity to frame the relationship between new social contexts and Aref Bey’s networks analytically. Khalid Ben-Srhir’s chapter on Boubeker El-Ghanjaoui, Wilfrid Rollman’s on Qajid al-Raha al-Najim al-Akhsassi, S ¸uhnaz Yılmaz’s on Enver Pasha, and Stuart Schaar’s on Mukhtar Al- Ayari, while providing interesting biographical stories, lack any critical engagement with the narrative. The weakest and most problematic chapter is Sanaa Makhlouf’s on iAbd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi. Makhlouf makes flagrant factual and conceptual mistakes and con- nects historical actors and phases in an alarmingly uncriti- cal manner. For example, the author states that the move- ment of Muhammad iAbduh and al-Afghani “reached its maturity in the Arab nationalism of the twentieth cen- tury” (113). This claim has been dismissed by historians for some decades now. More significantly, Makhlouf ar- gues that the roots of Islamism (which is oddly translated as the Arabic adjective “al-islamiyya,” with no preceding noun) are found in al-Kawakibi’s Umm al-Qura. The au- thor thus analyzes al-Kawakibi’s work out of context, omitting the fact that most of the ideas presented in Umm al-Qura echoed, rather than generated, ongoing de- bates among Muslim reformers. Makhlouf claims, with- out any evidence, that “al-Kawakibi’s rhetorically power- ful writings with their slogans and memorable quotes quickly became staple food for the Egyptian-influenced awakening and dissemination of Islamism in the Islamic world” (131). The author jumps over a whole set of differ- ent genealogical links between the reformist movement at the turn of the twentieth century and contemporary Salafi movements. Quoting Osama bin Laden to prove linkage between al-Kawakibi and jihadi Salafism is erro- neous and misleading (124). What the author fails to note is that the distinctive legacy of Umm al-Qura lies in al- Kawakibi’s proposal to separate religion from gover- nance, something that is anathema to almost all move- ments of political Islam that the author claims were influ- enced by the content of Umm al-Qura. To sum up, this book provides us with itineraries of in- dividuals whom we did not know about and sheds light on new aspects of itineraries of well-known individuals. Much of the data in it is new and interesting. Neverthe- less, the chapters vary in terms of quality, and the book as a whole fails to break any new theoretical or methodologi- cal ground, or even to contribute coherently to a new the- ory or methodology. The editors and most of the contribu- tors missed the opportunity to capitalize on this rich data to anchor the book in the recent historiography involving the Mediterranean and its different networks. The poten- tial was there; it is obvious from the questions asked in the introductory chapter. It is now up to future researchers to explore that potential. AMAL GHAZAL Simon Fraser University TOUFOUL ABOU-HODEIB. A Taste for Home: The Modern Middle Class in Ottoman Beirut. Stanford, Calif.: Stan- ford University Press, 2017. Pp. xiv, 260. $65.00. Phonographs, iron bedsteads, bentwood chairs, fancy cabinets, and aluminum utensils mass produced, im- ported, copied, advertised, and sold as part of an interna- tional economy and as everyday items in middle-class homes are the expressions and agents of “global intima- cies of taste” (chap. 2) in Toufoul Abou-Hodeib’s book A Taste For Home: The Modern Middle Class in Ottoman Beirut. The scene is a Mediterranean boomtown: Beirut AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW APRIL 2018 666 Reviews of Books Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/123/2/666/4958349 by guest on 07 April 2018