The Egyptian Labor Corps : : Race, Space, and Place in the First World War / / Kyle J. Anderson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package 2021
• VerfasserIn: Anderson, Kyle J.,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (281 p.) :; 10 b&w photos, 9 b&w illustrations

During World War I, the British Empire enlisted half a million young men, predominantly from the countryside of Egypt, in the Egyptian Labor Corps (ELC) and put them to work handling military logistics in Europe and the Middle East. British authorities reneged on their promise not to draw Egyptians into the war, and, as Kyle Anderson shows, the ELC was seen by many in Egypt as a form of slavery. The Egyptian Labor Corps tells the forgotten story of these young men, culminating in the essential part they came to play in the 1919 Egyptian Revolution. Combining sources from archives in four countries, Anderson explores Britain’s role in Egypt during this period and how the ELC came to be, as well as the experiences and hardships these men endured. As he examines the ways they coped—through music, theater, drugs, religion, strikes, and mutiny—he illustrates how Egyptian nationalists, seeing their countrymen in a state akin to slavery, began to grasp that they had been racialized as “people of color.” Documenting the history of the ELC and its work during the First World War, The Egyptian Labor Corps also provides a fascinating reinterpretation of the 1919 revolution through the lens of critical race theory.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- A Note about Language -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 A broken promise -- Chapter 2 The new Corvée -- Chapter 3 From home to the front -- Chapter 4 “If this is the holy land, what must hell be like?” -- Chapter 5 Race and space in Elc camps -- Chapter 6 Listening in on the Elc -- Chapter 7 The men of the Elc take action -- Chapter 8 “I will not accept slavery!” -- Chapter 9 The Elc and the 1919 revolution -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index