Book Review – Alison Pargeter’s ‘Return to the Shadows’

In Return to the Shadows, Alison Pargeter details the fall from grace of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Her thorough account of the Brotherhood’s rise to power during the protests of early 2011, and eventual fall under the majoritarian and insular rule of Muhammad Mursi in Egypt, of failed attempts by the Libyan Brotherhood to secure its place in the post-Qaddafi political order, and of An-Nahda’s unsuccessful troika government is a fantastic resource. With so many of the details of the 2011–2016 period having faded into myth, Pargeter sheds light on how exactly the Brotherhood came to be a key player during a period of unprecedented regional upheaval and how it was unable to maintain this position in the face of increasing political challenges.