Tunisia — A Narrative History of Post-Colonial Leaders (1956–2026)

The country that went first.

On 20 March 1956, at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, France recognised the independence of Tunisia. What followed was seventy years in which this small country so often went first: a founder who gave its women the boldest family code of the Muslim world and then had himself proclaimed president for life; a general who replaced him on the strength of a medical report signed at night; a fruit seller's protest that toppled a dictator in 28 days and set off the uprisings the world called the Arab Spring; a dialogue of unions, employers, lawyers and human rights activists that won the Nobel Peace Prize; and, after 2021, a president elected as an outsider who dismantled much of what the revolution had built.

Tunisia: A Narrative History of Post-Colonial Leaders tells that story as a story — chronological, human and sourced. Six acts, named as the book names them: The Supreme Combatant, The Long Twilight, The Change, Dignity and Dialogue, The Old Statesman, and The Professor's Republic — to 25 July 2026, when Tunisia marked the sixty-ninth anniversary of its republic and the fifth of the measures of 25 July 2021.

Inside:

• The deep past — Carthage and Hannibal, Roman Africa, Kairouan and the Hafsids, the reforming beys who abolished slavery in 1846 and gave the Arab world its first written constitution in 1861, the protectorate, and the road to 20 March 1956
• The national emblem — the red crescent and star, born after the defeat at Navarino; the arms with the Carthaginian galley, the scale and the lion; a motto that gained and lost the word "Dignity"; and an anthem that ends on Chebbi's lines on the will to live
• Six illustrated acts, from independence to the fifth anniversary of the measures of 25 July 2021 — Bourguiba's Code of Personal Status, Bizerte and the cooperatives; the presidency for life, Black Thursday and the bread riots; Ben Ali's National Pact, the crackdown and the "miracle"; the Revolution of Dignity, the Quartet and the constitution of 2014; Caïd Essebsi, the attacks of 2015 and the equality bill; Kaïs Saïed, the measures of 25 July 2021 and the constitution of 2022
• The country beneath the presidents — olive oil and phosphate, the beaches, a country of women, the UGTT, Djerba and the Ghriba, the poets and film-makers, the Eagles of Carthage and Ons Jabeur, and the water that is running out
• Verified quotes from Tunisia's leaders, and 53 key-fact cards on the pages that carry no picture or quote
• A chronology, a table of Tunisia's nine leaders (the last Bey, five presidents and three acting heads of state), 69 source notes and a reader's guide of 103 entries — books, articles and chapters, reports and journalism, primary sources and archives
• Lessons in Leadership — what the country's best and worst moments teach those who lead, and an epilogue on the latest official data to September 2026 (National Institute of Statistics, Central Bank of Tunisia, World Bank)
• The recurring patterns — reform from above, the twenty-fifth of July, the coast and the interior, bread and the creditors, the union as arbiter, the president who will not leave, the Islamists in and out, and a small country that negotiates

A clear, sourced introduction for anyone who wants to understand Tunisia, North Africa and the Arab Spring, and why a country needs institutions strong enough to hold its leaders to account.

What you get: the book in PDF and EPUB in one ZIP file, DRM-free, instant download. Future updates are included with your purchase.