How the rhetoric of humiliation defines the powerful and the powerless in modern politics
Humiliation pervades our politics, from images of stripped Palestinian men in Gaza to mocking chants at MAGA rallies. It suffuses pictures and videos, speaks through bodies as well as words, and is expressed by those with too much power as well as by those with too little. In Driven to Their Knees, Roxanne Euben takes readers from conflicts in the Arabic-speaking world to America's divided public square, advancing a theory of humiliation rooted in the ways people articulate and enact it. Euben analyzes some of the most conspicuous yet least studied Arabic expressions of humiliation, drawing on sources ranging from Qurʾānic commentary by Islamists to videos, poetry, songs, and tweets from the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
Driven to Their Knees reveals what the language of humiliation says-and also how it works. This groundbreaking book shows how humiliation expresses the imposition of impotence by those with undeserved power, and the way it converts relations of power into crises of virility. Humiliation rhetoric defines both the humiliated and the humiliator and issues an urgent call for a remedy in the viscerally charged language of emasculation. For Donald Trump and Usama bin Laden alike, this means driving their enemy to his knees for all to see, and then boasting about it to compound the degradation. But for others, humiliation galvanizes their struggle to "stand erect," uniting them in a refusal to be bowed low. Humiliation is not just about power but is itself a powerful language that does far more than reflect contemporary politics. The language of humiliation remakes the very world in which we live. Roxanne L. Euben is the Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Her books include Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge; Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism; and (with Muhammad Qasim Zaman) Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden (all Princeton). "In this powerfully argued and meticulously researched book, Euben reframes the politics of humiliation not as a simple, abstract violation of individual dignity but-at its very core-as an exercise and relation of power. Driven to Their Knees is bold, compelling, and incredibly timely."-Murad Idris, author of War for Peace: Genealogies of a Violent Ideal in Western and Islamic Thought
"Euben give readers unprecedented insight into invocations of humiliation in contemporary Arab politics, examining how it is deployed, experienced, and resisted. Her unique ability to bring both deep sympathy and profound criticism to her analysis makes this a remarkable book."-Humeira Iqtidar, author of Secularizing Islamists? Jama'at-e-Islami and Jama'at-ud-Da'wa in Urban Pakistan "Roxanne L. Euben has formulated the first theory of the function and rhetoric of humiliation in the political sphere. . . . [I]ncredibly fascinating."---Mads Brügger, Frihedsbrevet "[I] love this book. It's a great analysis of the concept of humiliation."---Jeffrey Church, The Political Theory Review "Driven to Their Knees offers a timely and fresh perspective on humiliation, not merely as an emotion but as a political tool driving conflict across ideologies and cultures. . . . [It] is an important contribution to understanding the deeper psychological and political roots of contemporary conflicts between Western civilization and the Islamic world."---Craig Considine, Middle East Quarterly "Driven to their Knees offers a thoughtful intervention into how to think about the politics of humiliation and the different forms it takes. . . . Scholars will pore over this work and try to expand upon it in other contexts, but for the general reader, thinking about the prevalence of humiliation in today's world
