Introduction: Occupation, independence, revolution

This chapter explores the development of modern Egyptian historiography and examine the role of the historian during the course of the 20th century as a disinterested observer of the national history but as a dynamic player in the institutional and intellectual life of the country. The British occupation of 1882, resulted in its ultimate incorporation as a protectorate of the British Empire in 1914. Installed as Prime Minister at the head of a Wafdist government in January 1924, Sa'd Zaghlul showed himself ready to draw from the armoury of British occupation in cracking down on political opposition and particularly the nascent communist and the labour movements. The short-lived experience of the United Arab Republic and the heavy Egyptian commitment to supporting republican forces in Yemen during the 1960s testified to a radical commitment even as it a demonstrated its limitations.