Gamal Abdel Nasser survived assassination attempts, nationalized the Suez Canal, and became the most powerful symbol of Arab unity and anti-colonial resistance in the twentieth century. He humiliated Britain and France, challenged Israel, and inspired revolutionary movements across the Middle East and Africa. His funeral drew five million mourners — the largest in human history at the time.

This episode traces Nasser from his postal clerk father’s household through the Free Officers coup, the Suez Crisis triumph, the United Arab Republic experiment, and the Six-Day War defeat that broke his health but not his hold on the Arab imagination.

• The Free Officers coup that overthrew the Egyptian monarchy in 1952
• The Suez Crisis — nationalizing the canal and humiliating the old colonial powers
• Pan-Arabism, the United Arab Republic, and the dream of a unified Arab state
• The Six-Day War defeat, the resignation that millions refused to accept, and his death at fifty-two