Editing Gamal Abdel Nasser (section)

=== Early influences ===
Aburish asserts that Nasser was not distressed by his frequent relocations, which broadened his horizons and showed him Egyptian society's [[class division]]s.<ref name="Aburish11-2" /> His own social status was well below the wealthy Egyptian elite, and his discontent with those born into wealth and power grew throughout his lifetime.<ref name="Alexander27" /> Nasser spent most of his spare time reading, particularly in 1933, when he lived near the [[Egyptian National Library and Archives|National Library of Egypt]]. He read the [[Qur'an]], the [[Hadith|sayings]] of [[Muhammad]], the lives of the [[Sahaba]] (Muhammad's companions),<ref name="Aburish11-2">{{Harvnb|Aburish|2004|pp=11–12}}</ref> the biographies of nationalist leaders [[Napoleon]], [[Atatürk]], [[Otto von Bismarck]] and [[Garibaldi]], and the [[My Early Life|autobiography]] of [[Winston Churchill]].<ref name="BibliothecaHoda" /><ref name="Litvin39" /><ref name="Alexander16">{{Harvnb|Alexander|2005|p=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Books Gamal Abdel Nasser Used to Read, 1. During his Secondary School Years |url=http://nasser.bibalex.org/Common/pictures01-%20sira4_en.htm#1 |publisher=[[Bibliotheca Alexandrina]] |access-date=20 August 2013}}</ref>

Nasser was greatly influenced by [[Egyptian nationalism]], as espoused by politician [[Mustafa Kamil Pasha|Mustafa Kamel]], poet [[Ahmed Shawqi]],<ref name="Aburish11-2" /> and his anti-colonialist instructor at the [[Egyptian Military Academy|Royal Military Academy]], [[Aziz al-Masri]], to whom Nasser expressed his gratitude in a 1961 newspaper interview.<ref>{{Harvnb|Talhami|2007|p=164}}</ref> He was especially influenced by Egyptian writer [[Tawfiq al-Hakim]]'s novel ''Return of the Spirit'', in which al-Hakim wrote that the Egyptian people were only in need of a "man in whom all their feelings and desires will be represented, and who will be for them a symbol of their objective".<ref name="Litvin39" /><ref name="Alexander16" /> Nasser later credited the novel as his inspiration to launch the coup d'état that began the [[Egyptian Revolution of 1952]].<ref name="Alexander16" />