Materials about Arab socialism, or socialism in the Arab world, available in English, were in serious need of being supplemented, first of all because much of the material was out of print, or 'dated' from the point of view of Arab society itself. It reflected too much of the Western concern over the East-West relationship and not enough of the actual process of indigenous social change. Another reason is that much of the material restricted itself to writing about socialism, with brief quotations and Western's perspectives.

It is the purpose of this book to draw attention to some of those realities which are particularly relevant to the progress of social reorganisation presently going on in Arab society, on the basis of original material.