Desert Imaginations traces the cultural and intellectual histories that have informed the prevalent ideas of deserts across the globe. The book argues that Saharanism—a globalizing imaginary that perceives desert spaces as empty, exploitable, and dangerous—has been at the center of all desert-focused enterprises. Encompassing spiritual practices, military thinking, sexual fantasies, experiential quests, extractive economies, and experimental schemes, among other projects, Saharanism has shaped the way deserts not only are constructed intellectually but are acted upon. From nuclear testing to border walls, and much more, Brahim El Guabli articulates some of Saharanism's consequential manifestations across different deserts. Desert Imaginations draws on the abundant historical literature and cultural output in multiple languages and across disciplines to delineate the parameters of Saharanism. Against Saharanism's powerful and reductive vision of deserts, the book rehabilitates a tradition of desert eco-care that has been at work in desert Indigenous people's literary, artistic, scholarly, and ritualistic practices.
Brahim El Guabli is Associate Professor of Comparative Thought and Literature at Johns Hopkins University. He is author of Moroccan Other-Archives: History and Citizenship after State Violence.
"A groundbreaking, timely, and necessary work, Desert Imaginations challenges us to rethink everything we believe we know about deserts. With conceptual precision, Brahim El Guabli introduces Saharanism as—simultaneously—an imaginary, a mode of knowledge, and a blueprint for questionable endeavors that play out in deserts globally. El Guabli brilliantly weaves together centuries of ideology and imperial desire to expose how deserts have been systematically othered and turned into spaces for experimentation, extraction, and erasure. The result is a profound exploration of how environments are made and unmade through imagination and power as well as a call to action to rethink our desert imaginaries and protect deserts' futures."—Joanna Allan, author of Saharan Winds: Energy Systems and Aeolian Imaginaries in Western Sahara
"Meticulously researched and argued, Desert Imaginations powerfully exposes the discursive, material, and ethical regimes that produce deserts and the exploitation of their peoples and landscapes—providing the timely and essential tools for imagining deserts, and our wider planet, otherwise."—Alice Wilson, author of Afterlives of Revolution: Everyday Counterhistories in Southern Oman
"El Guabli's book is a crucial read for anyone trying to understand not only deserts, but also the global mythos that has long shaped our view of them. His groundbreaking work reminds us that deserts are alive with meanings that have international and intergenerational ramifications. Importantly, this book uncovers the real consequences of Saharanism and its legacies, which have long 'justified' the exploitations of desert peoples, resources, and landscapes.Desert Imaginations is an imperative intervention: Saharanism provides a framework for desert scholars, dwellers, and policymakers to understand our own deserts, whose images have long been shaped by the agendas and inheritance of this Saharanism. This book is rich in history, analysis of primary sources, and critique of systems that have not only dominated deserts but also, as El Guabli points out, altered their futures."—Sarah Seekatz, author of Indio's Date Festival
"Desert Imaginations coins and presents Saharanism as a powerful analytical tool, delivered through clear prose, multilingual sources, and a multidisciplinary approach. El Guabli delves beyond fantasy and essentialized depictions of Indigenous Saharan existence to uncover the desert as a location of militarization, exploration, religious sanctuary, and industrial experimentation and extraction. This book is a great delight to read, both vivid and intellectually deep."—Aomar Boum, author of The Last Rekkas: Chronicles of a Foot Courier in Southern Morocco
"In this eloquent and evocative study, El Guabli examines Saharanism, a negative perception of deserts shared across many traditions. Reaching its apogee in French colonial projects, Saharanism frames deserts as places of death, conquest, and transgression. Working across a wide range of examples—from solar energy projects and nuclear weapons testing to sexual tourism and Burning Man festivals—Desert Imaginations shows how Saharanism transforms desert people and ecologies into exploitable objects. El Guabli also examines desert peoples' responses. These include notions such as waḥdat al-kāʾināt, which stresses the interdependence of human and nonhuman worlds."—Benjamin C. Brower, author of A Desert Named Peace: The Violence of France's Empire in the Algerian Sahara, 1844–1902
330 pp.6 x 9Illus: 15 b/w images, 3 maps
9780520401792$29.95|£25.00Paper
Nov 2025