ANDREW SHRYOCK, Nationalism and the GenealogicalImagination: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Society, Comparative Studies onMuslim Societies, 23 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). Pp. 370.

Abstract

In an era of instantaneous communication and ubiquitous media the global public is regularly invited to witness history in the making, as the expression goes, through newspaper accounts and broadcasts of events marked with special significance. In the Middle East and elsewhere, history is said to record the fate of nations that at times is unfolding before our eyes and ears, with the accuracy of claims resting on evidence to be observed or recovered in period documents and artifacts. What emerges supposedly is a narrative whose eventual uncertainties can be attributed to information gaps, inadequate archives, and difficulties in identifying or authenticating sources.