Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir - Tapa dura

The revolutions that swept the Middle East in 2011 surprised and captivated the world. Brutal regimes that had been in power for decades were overturned by an irrepressible mass of freedom seekers. Now, one of the figures who emerged during the Egyptian uprising tells the riveting inside story of what happened and shares the keys to unleashing the power of crowds.

Wael Ghonim was a little-known, thirty-year-old Google executive in the summer of 2010 when he anonymously launched a Facebook page to protest the death of one Egyptian man at the hands of security forces. The page’s following expanded quickly and moved from online protests to a nonconfrontational movement.

The youth of Egypt made history: they used social media to schedule a revolution. The call went out to more than a million Egyptians online, and on January 25, 2011, Cairo’s Tahrir Square resounded with calls for change. Yet just as the revolution began in earnest, Ghonim was captured and held for twelve days of brutal interrogation. After he was released, he gave a tearful speech on national television, and the protests grew more intense. Four days later, the president of Egypt was gone.
    
The lessons Ghonim draws will inspire each of us. He saw the road to Tahrir Square built not by any one person, but by the people. In Revolution 2.0, we can all be heroes.

[“People, we became 300...” fb post]

In Egypt during the summer of 2010, a Facebook page managed by Wael Ghonim became the unlikely gathering place for a nascent protest movement. Just six months later, speaking with the voices of its more than 350,000 members, that Facebook page would broadcast the first call for a January 25 uprising — a revolution against injustice, unemployment, corruption, and torture.

[“Today is the 14th...” fb post]

Revolution 2.0 tells the story of Ghonim’s journey from passive opposition to the revolutionary vanguard. From his keyboard to his jail cell, from his solitary Facebook posting to the emotional television interview that would touch millions of Egyptians, Ghonim’s story is an essential document and a call to arms.

FORGET THE PAST · LIVE IN THE MOMENT · LET THE CROWD MAKE ITS OWN DECISIONS

WELCOME TO REVOLUTION 2.0