Nasser's Republic: The Making of Modern Egypt

In 1952 a young Egyptian colonel named Gamal Abdel Nasser led a coup that became a revolution, winning the support of millions of his countrymen. Over the next 18 years he challenged Western hegemony abroad, confronted Islamism at home, established the region's first military authoritarian regime and faced deep divisions among the Arabs. A man of enormous charisma and ambition, Nasser died at 52 with his dreams of a new Egypt in tatters. He had given the Arab world a new way to see itself, but the time has come for that world to confront Nasser's legacy. (PBS)