Iranian-French sociologist Khosrokhavar (School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Paris) has written about Arab people and culture for the past two decades, and here looks at the popular risings that swept across the Muslim world in spring 2011. There is rarely anything simple to say about complex social movements, he warns as he discusses unexpected demo-movements in the Middle East and North Africa and their dynamics, the would-be middle class as the subjective foundation of the Arab Spring, and the new social actors. Among his topics are the Iranian green movement, historical precedents in other parts of the world, obstacles to democracy, and the symbolic dimensions. He has not indexed the study. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)