Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria. By Wedeen, Lisa . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. 272 p. $82.50 cloth, $27.50 paper

In addition to the more widely established mechanisms though which information overload and the dissemination of counterclaims can produce what Wedeen refers to as “siloed publics,” with people seeking out information that reaffirms their priors, her analysis draws attention to an overlooked and arguably more challenging consequence: “conditions of generalized uncertainty make it easy for people to find alibis for avoiding commitment to judgment at all” (p. 79; emphasis added). [...]Wedeen’s analysis of the seductive power of neoliberal ambitions of the “good life” in sustaining support for the status quo, particularly among the urban middle and upper classes, begs the question of the interplay of material and ideational factors. [...]at a time when scholarship on Syria is rapidly growing in political science, even as the country itself remains inaccessible to most researchers, this book demonstrates the richness that can be achieved with deep contextual knowledge and ethnographic insights that go beyond the country’s most recent history.