In this seminal work written immediately after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, historian Constantine Zurayk was one of the first to use the term "Nakba" (Catastrophe). He provides a searing self-critique of Arab society, analyzing the internal weaknesses, disunity, and failure to embrace modernity that led to the defeat. Zurayk calls for a profound, rational, and secular transformation within the Arab world to overcome the crisis, making this a foundational text in modern Arab intellectual history.