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Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World. By Robin Wright. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. 307 pp. $26.99 cloth.

That the tumultuous—and ongoing—events of what has been dubbed the ‘‘Arab Spring’’ will be a defining watershed in the history of North Africa and the Middle East is undeniable. But what it ultimately means for the future of these countries, the region, the Islamic world, and the wider international community has yet to be determined, and it will undoubtedly be years or even decades before the full repercussions of this upheaval are felt. Change is upon us, but what is driving this change? Why now? And most important, what does the future hold? Although largely written before the wave of popular protests that began to sweep across North Africa in December 2010, veteran Middle East watcher Robin Wright attempts in Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World to answer these questions and make sense of the often conflicting and confusing crosscurrents simmering beneath the surface of Islamic society. In an easy to read, flowing, and engaging narrative, Wright takes the reader on a whirlwind journey of discovery from Morocco to India and from the United States to Iran that demystifies and shatters common Western stereotypes of Islamic society and what it means to be a Muslim in the early twenty-first century. In Wright’s narratives, rather than simply stoically reacting to life or uncritically adopting Western ideas or constrictive ideologies to understand their situation, the people of Islamic societies are seeking to take charge and actively drive change. In doing so, millions of Muslims, both young and old, around the globe are seeking to redefine themselves, their religion, their role in society, and, most of all, their future. Once the poster child for Islamic rage and rebellion against the injustices of the world, al-Qaeda has seen its support plummet starkly across the Islamic world, a fact confirmed by Pew Research Center polling (p. 74). This organization is being replaced, according to Wright, by a fundamental shift— a counter-jihad—that broadly rejects extremist violence and embraces democratic ideals, personal empowerment, and freedom. Clearly, for many Muslims, ‘‘the times they are a-changing.’’