The History Book Club discussion
MIDDLE EAST
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LEBANON
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by Anthony ShadidSynopsis:
“Evocative and beautifully written, House of Stone . . . should be read by anyone who wishes to understand the agonies and hopes of the Middle East.” — Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author of Crossing Mandelbaum Gate
“In rebuilding his family home in southern Lebanon, Shadid commits an extraordinarily generous act of restoration for his wounded land, and for us all.” — Annia Ciezadlo, author of Day of Honey
In spring 2011, Anthony Shadid was one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya, cuffed and beaten, as that country was seized by revolution. When he was freed, he went home. Not to Boston or Beirut—where he lives— or to Oklahoma City, where his Lebanese-American family had settled and where he was raised. Instead, he returned to his great-grandfather’s estate, a house that, over three years earlier, Shadid had begun to rebuild.
House of Stone is the story of a battle-scarred home and a war correspondent’s jostled spirit, and of how reconstructing the one came to fortify the other. In this poignant and resonant memoir, the author of the award-winning Night Draws Near creates a mosaic of past and present, tracing the house’s renewal alongside his family’s flight from Lebanon and resettlement in America. In the process, Shadid memorializes a lost world, documents the shifting Middle East, and provides profound insights into this volatile landscape. House of Stone is an unforgettable meditation on war, exile, rebirth, and the universal yearning for home.
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Thomas L. FriedmanSynopsis:
Winner of the 1989 National Book Award for nonfiction, this extraordinary bestseller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the Middle East. Thomas L. Friedman, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, and now the Foreign Affairs columnist on the op-ed page of the New York Times, drew on his ten years in the Middle East to write a book that The Wall Street Journal called "a sparkling intellectual guidebook... an engrossing journey not to be missed." Now with a new chapter that brings the ever-changing history of the conflict in the Middle East up to date, this seminal historical work reaffirms both its timeliness and its timelessness. "If you're only going to read one book on the Middle East, this is it." -- Seymour Hersh. "From Beirut To Jerusalem is the most intelligent and comprehensive account one is likely to read." -- New York Times Book Review
National Book Award for Nonfiction (1989)
ASJA Outstanding Book Award (1990)
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by Robin Wright (no photo)Synopsis:
A magnificent reckoning with the extraordinary changes engulfing the Middle East, by one of our greatest reporters on the region
Robin Wright first landed in the Middle East on October 6, 1973, the day the fourth Middle East war erupted. She has covered every country and most major crises in the region since then, through to the rise of Al-Qaeda and the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
For all the drama of the past, however, the region's most decisive traumas are unfolding today as the Middle East struggles to deal with trends that have already reshaped the rest of the world. And for all the darkness, there is also hope.
Some of the emerging trends give cause for greater optimism about the future of the Middle East than at any time since the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948.
Dreams and Shadows is an extraordinary tour d'horizon of the new Middle East, with on-the-ground reportage of the ideas and movements driving change across the region-and the obstacles they confront.
Through the powerful storytelling for which the author is famous, Dreams and Shadows ties together the players and events in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey, the Gulf states, and the Palestinian territories into a coherent vision of what lies ahead.
A marvelous field report from the center of the storm, the book is animated by the characters whose stories give the region's transformation its human immediacy and urgency. It is also rich with the history that brought us to this point. It is a masterpiece of the reporter's art and a work of profound and enduring insight.
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by Patrick SealeSynopsis:
The Middle East, as we know it today, was shaped in the violent and tumultuous years of the first half of the 20th century. The roots of many of the conflicts and crises which afflict the region today can be traced back to this period of wars, high drama and the cavalier re-drawing of maps. Patrick Seale, a leading historian of the region, tells the story of the making of the modern Middle East through the life of Riad el-Solh, a Lebanese politician who grew into the outstanding Arab statesman of his time. Based on British and French archives, and on numerous interviews, the book pieces together the history of the Arab struggle for independence through the lives of those most directly involved. It is an invaluable resource for students and researchers, and of compelling interest to anyone who wants to know more about the Middle East.
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by David HirstSynopsis
Lebanon, a country no bigger than Connecticut, has become a battleground for the political, strategic and ideological conflicts of its neighbors and the great powers. It has come to reflect the broad historical experiences of the modern Middle East. Beware of Small States is an elegant and incisive history of Lebanon culminating with the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and its aftermath. David Hirst—a former Middle East correspondent for The Guardian, whose tough, skeptical voice has earned him death threats and seen him banned from six Arab countries—crafts a narrative that is essential for anyone wishing to understand the current political climate of the Middle East.
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Rafik Hariri 
As prime minister of Lebanon, he is widely credited with getting the country back on its feet after the devastating 15-year civil conflict.
He held office from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation in 2004 - a total of five terms. But on 14 February 2005, a year after he quit as leader, explosives were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St George Hotel in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
His death had profound implications in Lebanon, paving the way for the Cedar Revolution and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country after 29 years.The investigation into his murder has meanwhile led to years of political turmoil.
Hariri was born in 1944 to a poor Sunni Muslim family in the southern port of Sidon. After training as a teacher, he went abroad to seek his fortune, following a path well-trodden by many of his countrymen. He found employment in a construction firm in Saudi Arabia, eventually establishing his own firm, Saudi Oger.
He became the personal contractor for Prince Fahd, who went on to become king of Saudi Arabia, and amassed a fortune that propelled him into the US magazine Forbes as one of the richest 100 men in the world. A flamboyant figure, he was well regarded among international leaders, counting French President Jacques Chirac as a close friend.
When he returned from Saudi Arabia in 1992 as prime minister, he was seen as a breath of fresh air in a country dominated by former militia leaders. Ordinary people pinned hopes on the dynamic tycoon to restore Beirut's pre-war reputation as a leading financial centre.
He put the country back on the international financial map through the issuing of Eurobonds and won plaudits from the World Bank for his plan to borrow and beg for reconstruction money.
Feud with Lahoud
But his economic record was mixed: his ambitious borrow-and-build schemes left massive public debt and budget deficit, which pushed up interest rates and slowed growth. He was accused of ignoring the poor, despite his long record of funding charitable causes. Ordinary Lebanese began to judge him by the same standards of cynicism applied to other politicians, many of whom had made their fortunes in civil war activities.
When he left power in 1998, it came about partly because Hariri was reluctant to play second fiddle to President Emile Lahoud, a former army chief.
Hariri's legacy was further tainted by accusations of corruption and he also faced criticism for saddling the country with big debts. But Hariri returned in October 2000, taking his old job back off the political veteran Selim al-Hoss. But he again fell out with his pro-Syrian government colleagues during the crisis over the extension of President Lahoud's term in office.
He never overtly came out against Syria in the dispute, but his resignation in October 2004 was taken as a clear protest against the Syrian pressure to keep Mr Lahoud in office.
It was a move which some say cost him his life.
(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middl...)
More:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/referen...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/20...
http://www.rhariri.com/
by
Nicholas Blanford
by
Robert Fisk
by
Fawwaz Traboulsi
by William E. Shapiro (no photo)
by Michael Kerr (no photo)
The Bouzouki
This is the other stringed instrument that is essential to Middle Eastern music.
The bouzouki is a Greek musical instrument that was brought to Greece in the 1900s by immigrants from Asia Minor, and quickly became the central instrument to the rebetika genre and its music branches. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but pitched lower. There are two main types of bouzouki. The trichordo (three-course) has three pairs of strings (known as courses), and the tetrachordo (four-course) has four pairs of strings.
The name "bouzouki" comes from the Turkish word "bozuk," meaning "broken" or "modified", and comes from a particular re-entrant tuning called "bozuk düzen", which was commonly used on its Turkish counterpart, the "saz-bozuk". It is in the same instrumental family as the mandolin and the lute. Originally the body was carved from a solid block of wood, similar to the saz, but upon its arrival in Greece in the early 1910s it was modified by the addition of a staved back borrowed from the Neapolitan mandola, and the top angled in the manner of a Neapolitan mandolins so as to increase the strength of the body to withstand thicker steel strings. The type of the instrument used in Rembetika music was a three-stringed instrument, but in the 1950s a four-string variety was introduced.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouzouki)
More:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.greeksongs-greekmusic.com/...
by GRAHAM MCDONALD (no photo)
by A.J. Racy (no photo)
by V. Danielson (no photo)
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Another Lebanon option: "A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel". Maybe not the very best introduction book, but if one is interested in... hm... chaos and conflict? Ideology? Political religion? - along those lines, anyway - then it's not the worst of books, either. 
by
Thanassis Cambanis
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Good job with the citation.
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Bad News for Syria and poor Lebanon:
Hezbollah chief commits to victory in Syria
By BASSEM MROUE | Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group vowed to help propel President Bashar Assad to victory in Syria's bloody civil war, warning that the fall of the Damascus regime would give rise to extremists and plunge the Middle East into a "dark period."
In a televised address, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah also said Hezbollah members are fighting in Syria against Islamic radicals who pose a danger to Lebanon, and pledged that his group will not allow Syrian militants to control areas along the Lebanese border. He pledged that Hezbollah will turn the tide of the conflict in Assad's favor, and stay as long as necessary to do so.
"We will continue this road until the end, we will take the responsibility and we will make all the sacrifices," he said. "We will be victorious."
The Hezbollah leader's comments offered the clearest public confirmation yet that the Iranian-backed group is directly involved in Syria's war. They also were Nasrallah's first remarks since Hezbollah fighters have pushed to the front lines of the battle for the strategic Syrian town of Qusair near the Lebanese frontier.
The fighting in Qusair, which government troops backed by Hezbollah pounded with artillery on Saturday, has laid bare the Lebanese Shiite group's growing role in the Syrian conflict. Hezbollah initially tried to play down its involvement, but could no longer do so after dozens of its fighters were killed in the town and buried in large funerals in Lebanon.
Remainder of article:
http://news.yahoo.com/hezbollah-chief...
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by Michael J. Totten (no photo)Synopsis:
The Road to Fatima Gate is a first-person narrative account of revolution, terrorism, and war during history's violent return to Lebanon after fifteen years of quiet. Michael J. Totten's version of events in one of the most volatile countries in the world's most volatile region is one part war correspondence, one part memoir, and one part road movie.
He sets up camp in a tent city built in downtown Beirut by anti-Syrian dissidents, is bullied and menaced by Hezbollah's supposedly friendly "media relations" department, crouches under fire on the Lebanese-Israeli border during the six-week war in 2006, witnesses an Israeli ground invasion from behind a line of Merkava tanks, sneaks into Hezbollah's post-war rubblescape without authorization, and is attacked in Beirut by militiamen who enforce obedience to the "resistance" at the point of a gun.
From the "Cedar Revolution" that ousted the occupying Syrian military regime in 2005, to the devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and to Hezbollah's slow-motion but violent assault on Lebanon's elected government and capital, Totten's account is both personal and comprehensive. He simplifies the bewildering complexity of the Middle East, has access to major regional players as well as to the man on the street, and personally witnesses most of the events he describes. The Road to Fatima Gate should be indispensable reading for anyone interested in the Middle East, Iran's expansionist foreign policy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, asymmetric warfare, and terrorism in the aftermath of September 11.
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by William W. Harris (no photo)Synopsis:
In this impressive synthesis, William Harris narrates the history of the sectarian communities of Mount Lebanon and its vicinity. He offers a fresh perspective on the antecedents of modern multi-communal Lebanon, tracing the consolidation of Lebanon's Christian, Muslim, and Islamic derived sects from their origins between the sixth and eleventh centuries.
The identities of Maronite Christians, Twelver Shia Muslims, and Druze, the mountain communities, developed alongside assertions of local chiefs under external powers from the Umayyads to the Ottomans. The chiefs began interacting in a common arena when Druze lord Fakhr al-Din Ma'n achieved domination of the mountain within the Ottoman imperial framework in the early seventeenth century. Harris knits together the subsequent interplay of the elite under the Sunni Muslim Shihab relatives of the Ma'ns after 1697 with demographic instability as Maronites overtook Shia as the largest community and expanded into Druze districts. By the 1840s many Maronites conceived the common arena as their patrimony. Maronite/Druze conflict ensued.
Modern Lebanon arose out of European and Ottoman intervention in the 1860s to secure sectarian peace in a special province. In 1920, after the Ottoman collapse, France and the Maronites enlarged the province into the modern country, with a pluralism of communal minorities headed by Maronite Christians and Sunni Muslims. The book considers the flowering of this pluralism in the mid-twentieth century, and the strains of new demographic shifts and of social resentment in an open economy. External intrusions after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war rendered Lebanon's contradictions unmanageable and the country fell apart.
Harris contends that Lebanon has not found a new equilibrium and has not transcended its sects. In the early twenty-first century there is an uneasy duality: Shia have largely recovered the weight they possessed in the sixteenth century, but Christians, Sunnis, and Druze are two-thirds of the country. This book offers readers a clear understanding of how modern Lebanon acquired its precarious social intricacy and its singular political character.
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Nicholas BlanfordSynopsis:
Hezbollah is the most powerful Islamist group operating in the Middle East today, and no other Western journalist has penetrated as deeply inside this secretive organization as Nicholas Blanford. Now Blanford has written the first comprehensive inside account of Hezbollah and its enduring struggle against Israel. Based on more than a decade and a half of reporting in Lebanon and conversations with Hezbollah’s determined fighters, Blanford reveals their ideology, motivations, and training, as well as new information on military tactics, weapons, and sophisticated electronic warfare and communications systems.
Using exclusive sources and his own dogged investigative skills, Blanford traces Hezbollah’s extraordinary evolution—from a zealous group of raw fighters motivated by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution into the most formidable non-state military organization in the world, whose charismatic leader vows to hasten Israel’s destruction. With dramatic eyewitness accounts, including Blanford’s own experiences of the battles, massacres, triumphs, and tragedies that have marked the conflict, the story follows the increasingly successful campaign of resistance that led to Israel’s historic withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
Warriors of God shows how Hezbollah won hearts and minds with exhaustive social welfare programs and sophisticated propaganda skills. Blanford traces the group’s secret military build-up since 2000 and reveals the stunning scope of its underground network of tunnels and bunkers, becoming the only journalist to independently discover and explore them. With the Middle East fearful of another, even more destructive war between Lebanon and Israel, Blanford tenaciously pursues Hezbollah’s post-2006 battle plans in the Lebanese mountains, earning him newspaper scoops as well as a terrifying interrogation and a night in jail.
Featuring sixteen years of probing interviews with Hezbollah’s leaders and fighters, Warriors of God is essential to understanding a key player in a region rocked by change and uncertainty.
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by Meir Zamir (no photo)Synopsis:
Lebanon's unique political system and its laissez-faire political economy took shape during the period between the two great wars. Based on hitherto unstudied material, this work examines the inter- and intra-sectarian relations in Lebanon against the backdrop of the conflicting pressures from Damascus and Paris, the stands of the Christians and Muslims towards the Lebanese state, the ideological and political trends that emerged within each community and the rise of the political and economic elites in Beirut. It also analyzes Lebanese politics in the wider context of the Franco-Syrian confrontation, France's Middle East policy, the roots of Syria's hostility towards the Lebanese state and the attempts of its leaders to link it politically to Syria.
This secret agreement made during WWI, is said to have influenced the Middle East, including Lebanon, and brought about the turmoil that exists to the present day.The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916
The Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916, was a secret agreement that was concluded by two British and French diplomats, Sir Mark Sykes and Georges Picot. The Sykes-Picot Agreement involved itself with the partition of the Ottoman Empire once World War One had ended.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement effectively handed over control of Syria, Lebanon and Turkish Cilicia to the French and Palestine, Jordan and areas around the Persian Gulf and Baghdad to the British. While neither France nor Britain actually ‘owned’ these territories, they were to effectively control them at a governmental and administrative level. Northern Syria and Mesopotamia were also considered to be an area of French influence while Arabia and the Jordan Valley were considered to be a sphere of influence of the British. Jerusalem was to be governed by an international administration.
This agreement did clash with the McMahon Agreement of 1915 and the statements made by T E Lawrence to the Arabs who had expected to be allowed to govern their own regions after helping the Allies fight the Turks during World War One.
The agreement was never completely fulfilled by the peace settlements but it did lead to the Arab people not fully trusting the British or French governments in the future.
How did the Arab people find out about the Sykes-Picot Agreement?
After the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917, the Communists, led by Vladimir Lenin, found a copy of the agreement in the Russian government’s archives. Russia, in the agreement, was to have influence in Turkish Armenia and northern Kurdistan – hence why the pre-communist government had a copy of the agreement. The Russian Communists released the contents of the agreement into the public domain – thus explaining why numerous Arab groups knew about it. (Source: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/...)
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by Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr (no photo)Synopsis:
By recasting the relationship between religion and nationalism in the Middle East, Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr proposes a new framework for understanding Shi'ite politics in Lebanon. Her study draws on a variety of untapped sources, reconsidering not only the politics of the established leadership of Shi'ites but also institutional and popular activities of identity production. Shaery-Eisenlohr traces current Shi'ite politics of piety and authenticity to the coexistence formula in Lebanon and argues that engaging in the discourses of piety and coexistence is a precondition to cultural citizenship in Lebanon. As she demonstrates, debates over the nature of Christianity and Islam and Christian-Muslim dialogue are in fact intertwined with power struggles at the state level.
Since the 1970s, debates in the transnational Shi'ite world have gradually linked Shi'ite piety with the support of the Palestinian cause. Iran's religious elite has backed this piety project in multiple ways, but in doing so it has assisted in the creation of a variety of Lebanese Shi'ite nationalisms with competing claims to religious and national authenticity. Shaery-Eisenlohr argues that these ties to Iran have in fact strengthened the position of Lebanese Shi'ites by providing, as is recognized, economic, military, and ideological support for Hizbullah, as well as by compelling Lebanese Shi'ites to foreground the Lebanese components of their identity more forcefully than ever before.
Shaery-Eisenlohr challenges the belief that Shi'ite identity politics only serve to undermine the Lebanese national project. She also makes clear that the expression of Lebanese Shi'ite identity is a nationalist expression and an unintended result of Iranian efforts to influence the politics of Lebanon.
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by Robert G Rabil (no photo)Synopsis:
Salafism, comprised of fundamentalist Islamic movements whose adherents consider themselves the only "saved" sect of Islam, has been little studied, remains shrouded in misconceptions, and has provoked new interest as Salafists have recently staked a claim to power in some Arab states while spearheading battles against "infidel" Arab regimes during recent rebellions in the Arab world. Robert G. Rabil examines the emergence and development of Salafism into a prominent religious movement in Lebanon, including the ideological and sociopolitical foundation that led to the three different schools of Salafism in Lebanon: quietist Salafists, Haraki (active) Salafists; and Salafi Jihadists.
Emphasizing their "manhaj" (methodology) toward politics, the author surveys Salafists' ideological transformation from opponents of to supportive of political engagement. Their antagonism to Hezbollah, which they denounce as the party of Satan, has risen exponentially following the party's seizure of Beirut in 2008 and support of the tyrannical Syrian regime. "Salafism in Lebanon" also demonstrates how activists and jihadi Salafists, in response to the political weakness of Sunni leadership, have threatened regional and international security by endorsing violence and jihad.
Drawing on field research trips, personal interviews, and Arabic primary sources, the book explores the relationship between the ideologies of the various schools of Salafism and their praxis in relation to Lebanese politics. The book should interest students and scholars of Islamic movements, international affairs, politics and religion, and radical groups and terrorism.
The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon's Life Struggle
by Michael Young (no photo)Synopsis:
NOT SINCE THOMAS FRIEDMAN’SFROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM IN 1989 HAS A JOURNALIST OFFERED SUCH A POIGNANT AND PASSIONATE PORTRAIT OF LEBANON—A UNIQUELY PLURALIST ARAB COUNTRY STRUGGLING TO DEFEND ITS VIABILITY IN A TURBULENT AND TREACHEROUS MIDDLE EAST.
Michael Young, who was taken to Lebanon at age seven by his Lebanese mother after the death of his American father and who has worked most of his career as a journalist there for American publications, brings to life a country in the crossfire of invasions, war, domestic division, incessant sectarian scheming, and often living in fear of its neighbors. Young knows or has known many of the players, politicians, writers, and religious leaders.
A country riven by domestic tensions that have often resulted in assassinations, under the considerable sway of Hezbollah (in alliance with Iran and Syria), frequently set upon by Israel and Syria, nearly destroyed by civil war, Lebanon remains an exception among Arab countries because it is a place where liberal instincts and tolerance struggle to stay alive.
An important and enduring symbol, Lebanon was once the outstanding example of an (almost) democratic society in an inhospitable, dangerous region - a laboratory both for modernity and violence, as a Lebanese intellectual who was later assassinated once put it.
Young relates the growing tension between a domineering Syria and a Lebanese opposition in which charismatic leader and politician Rafiq al-Hariri was assassinated and the Independence Intifada - the Cedar Revolution - broke out. His searing account of his country's confrontation with its domestic and regional demons is one of hope found and possibly lost.
In this stunning narrative, Young tells us what might have been his country's history, and what it may yet be.
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Understanding Shiite Leadership: The Art of the Middle Ground in Iran and Lebanon
by Shaul Mishal (no photo)Synopsis:
In this book, Shaul Mishal and Ori Goldberg explore the ways in which Shiite leaderships in Iran and Lebanon approach themselves and their world. Contrary to the violent and radical image of religious leaderships in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanese Hizballah, the political vision and practice of these leaderships view the world as a middle ground, shying away from absolutist and extremist tendencies. The political leadership assumed by Shiite religious scholars in Iran and Lebanon has transformed Shiite Islam from a marginalized minority to a highly politicized avant garde of Muslim presence, revitalized the practice and causes of political Islam in its struggle for legitimacy and authority, and reshaped the politics of the Middle East and the globe in its image. Utilizing approaches from social theory, history, theology, and literary criticism, the book presents these leaderships as pragmatic, interpretative entities with the potential to form fruitful relationships between Shiite leadership and the non-Shiite world.
Palestine & Lebanon at the Crossroads: Occupation and Resistance 
by Ramsey Clark (no photo)Synopsis:
Examining the causes and objectives of the U.S.-backed Israeli attacks on Palestine and Lebanon, this anthology reveals critical information about the unreported crimes against humanity perpetrated by the United States and Israel. Along with Israel's criminal use of U.S. cluster bombs on civilians and civilian infrastructure, this expose of the dangers of U.S. foreign policy includes chapters on the historical context of the conflict, the underlying political and economic interests, and eyewitness reports and interviews.
Reviving Phoenicia: The Search for Identity in Lebanon
by Asher Kaufman (no photo)Synopsis:
Reviving Phoenicia follows the social, intellectual and political development of the Phoenician myth of origin in Lebanon from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the 20th. Asher Kaufman demonstrates the role played by the lay, liberal Syrian-Lebanese who resided in Beirut, Alexandria and America towards the end of the 19th century in the birth and dissemination of this myth. Kaufman investigates the crucial place Phoenicianism occupied in the formation of Greater Lebanon in 1920. He also explores the way the Jesuit Order and the French authorities propagated this myth during the mandate years. The book also analyzes literary writings of different Lebanese who advocated this myth, and of others who opposed it.
Coexistence in Wartime Lebanon: Decline of a State and Rise of a Nation
by Theodor Hanf (no photo)Synopsis:
This book is both a comprehensive history and a penetrating analysis of war in Lebanon in recent years. Though primarily a surrogate war over Palestine, in recent years the conflict has also become one between different Lebanese groups which can only be understood in the light of these groups' fears of being excluded from the country's political and social power-centres. The book's main theme is the problem of conflict and conflict regulation in Lebanon. How were conflicts regulated peacefully in pre-war Lebanon? How do the Lebanese - political and military leaders on the one hand and ordinary citizens on the other - view events in their country? What are their aspirations, and what do they believe they must realistically settle for? Can peaceful co-existence between Lebanon's different communities be re-established? The answers to these questions are of fundamental importance not only to Lebanon but the whole Middle East peace process. Professor Hanf's discussion of them is based on extensive first-hand research, as well as a wide range of primary and secondary sources.
A History of Modern Lebanon
by
Fawwaz Traboulsi Synopsis:
This is the first comprehensive history of Lebanon in the modern period. It is entirely unique as the last history of Lebanon was published more than forty years ago. Written by a leading Lebanese scholar and based on previously inaccessible archives, it is a fascinating and beautifully-written account of one of the world's most fabled countries.
Starting with the formation of Ottoman Lebanon in the sixteenth century, Fawwaz Traboulsi covers the growth of Beirut as a capital for trade and culture through the nineteenth century. The main part of the book concentrates on Lebanon's development in the twentieth century and the conflicts that led up to the major wars in the 1970s and 1980s. Lebanon in the twentieth century has seen turbulent times, the results of which we still see today.
This is a rich history of Lebanon that brings to life its politics, its people, and the crucial role that it has always played in world affairs.
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by Rula Jurdi Abisaab (no photo)Synopsis:
The complex history of Lebanese Shi'ites has traditionally been portrayed as rooted in religious and sectarian forces. The Abisaabs uncover a more nuanced account in which colonialism, the modern state, social class, and provincial politics profoundly shaped Shi'i society.
The authors trace the sociopolitical, economic, and intellectual transformation of the Shi'ites of Lebanon from 1920 during the French colonial period until the late twentieth century. They shed light on the relationship of contemporary Islamic militancy with traditions of religious modernism and leftism in both Lebanon and Iraq. Analyzing the interaction between sacred and secular features of modern Shi'ite society, the authors clearly follow the group's turn toward religious revolution and away from secular activism. This book transforms our understanding of twentieth-century Lebanese history and demonstrates how the rise of Hizbullah was conditioned by Shi'ites' consistent marginalization and neglect by the Lebanese state.
Lebanon: War and Politics in a Fragmented Society
by Charles Winslow (no photo)Synopsis:
Winslow provides a comprehensive history and political analysis of Lebanon from ancient times to the present day. He focuses on the civil and sectarian strife that has characterized the country's past and contemporary history.
Memory and Conflict in Lebanon: Remembering and Forgetting the Past
by Craig Larkin (no photo)Synopsis:
This book examines the legacy of Lebanon 's civil war and how the population, and the youth in particular, are dealing with their national past. Drawing on extensive qualitative research and social observation, the author explores the efforts of those who wish to remember, so as not to repeat past mistakes, and those who wish to forget.
In considering how the Lebanese youth are negotiating this collective memory, Larkin addresses issues of:
* Lebanese post-war amnesia and the gradual emergence of new memory discourses and public debates
* Lebanese nationalism and historical memory visual memory and mnemonic landscapes oral memory and post-war narratives
war memory as an agent of ethnic conflict and a tool for reconciliation and peace-building.
* Trans-generational trauma or postmemory.
Shedding new light on trauma and the persistence of ethnic and religious hostility, this book offers a unique insight into Lebanon 's recurring communal tensions and a fresh perspective on the issue of war memory. As such, this is an essential addition to the existing literature on Lebanon and will be relevant for scholars of sociology, Middle East studies, anthropology, politics and history.
Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz)
by Mordechai Nisan (no photo)Synopsis:
This work is a combination of an account of a most captivating Lebanese personality with an analysis of the historical and religious contours of Lebanon. His life is part of the national epic with elements of Christian faith and Maronite sophistication, inter-confessional modes of partnership, and violence tearing apart the fabric of social and economic life. Integral to the narrative and interpretation is the complex politics of Lebanon intermixed with the war that errupted in 1975. Etienne Sakr embodies the destiny of Lebanon and its defiant struggle for national existence in the Middle East. He was the first to understand the threats to Lebanon and the decay in its elite circles, and he may be the last exile to return home. Personal testimonies from Lebanese residents and conversations with others outside of Lebanon who knew Abu-Arz, in addition to interviews with Israelis aquainted with him, provide the authenticity to the portrait of this remarkable man.
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Release date: October 13, 2015
The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East: Northern Lebanon from al-Qaeda to ISIS
by Bernard Rougier (no photo)Synopsis:
Northern Lebanon is a land in turmoil. Long under the sway of the Assad regime in Syria, it is now a magnet for Sunni Muslim jihadists inspired by anti-Western and anti-Shi'i worldviews. The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East describes in harrowing detail the struggle led by an active minority of jihadist militants, some claiming allegiance to ISIS, to seize control of Islam and impose its rule over the region's Sunni Arab population.
Bernard Rougier introduces us to men with links to the mujahideen in Afghanistan, the Sunni resistance in Iraq, al-Qaeda, and ISIS. He describes how they aspire to replace north Lebanon's Sunni elites, who have been attacked and discredited by neighboring powers and jihadists alike, and explains how they have successfully positioned themselves as the local Sunni population's most credible defender against powerful external enemies--such as Iran and the Shi'i militia group Hezbollah. He sheds new light on the methods and actions of the jihadists, their internal debates, and their evolving political agenda over the past decade.
This riveting book is based on more than a decade of research, more than one hundred in-depth interviews with players at all levels, and Rougier's extraordinary access to original source material. Written by one of the world's leading experts on jihadism, The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East provides timely insight into the social, political, and religious life of this dangerous and strategically critical region of the Middle East.
Lebanon: After the Cedar Revolution
by Are Knudsen (no photo)Synopsis:
Lebanon is the prisoner of its geography and its history. It has been a prize for invaders since ancient times and is presently a small multi-denominational state still recovering from a bloody civil war in its search for political autonomy and stability. Lebanon examines the country's recent past since 2005 -- when a mass movement agitated against Syrian dominance in the wake of the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the then President of the country -- and also details the roles of Hezbollah and other political groups.
Sectarian tensions have escalated, predominantly between the Sunni and Shia communities, causing outbursts of street violence and a paralysis in government. This two-bloc system has left Lebanon ungovernable, not simply due to deep-seated political differences, but also because of their external linkages to foreign patrons, namely the USA and Iran. As the Arab Spring develops, it also increases Hezbollah's significance to Iran as the embattled Assad regime struggles to quash the Syrian insurgency.
The authors examine the changes that recent events have brought to Lebanon, whether lasting or ephemeral, and the challenges they represent for a state, which despite the resilience of its power-sharing system of government remains hotly contested and unconsolidated.
The Politics of Sectarianism in Postwar Lebanon
by Bassel F. Salloukh (no photo)Synopsis:
The Arab Spring unsettled regimes across North Africa and the Middle East, from Morocco to Oman. Lebanon, however, proved immune. How can that be explained? What features of Lebanese politics and governance could account for the system’s ability to withstand the domestic and regional pressures unleashed by the Arab Spring?
The Politics of Sectarianism in Postwar Lebanon builds on extensive field work to find the answers to those questions and more. Bassel Salloukh, Lebanon’s leading political scientist, analyses the mix of institutional, clientelist, and discursive practices that sustain the sectarian nature of Lebanon, revealing an expanding sectarian web that occupies ever-more-substantial areas of everyday life in Lebanon. It also highlights the struggles waged by opponents of the system, including women, public sector employees, teachers, students, and NGO-based coalitions, and how their efforts often fail to bear fruit because of sabotage by various systematic forces.
Reproducing Sectarianism: Advocacy Networks and the Politics of Civil Society in Postwar Lebanon
by Paul W T Kingston (no photo)Synopsis:
The Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere has highlighted the growing importance of the politics of civil society in the contemporary Middle East. In "Reproducing Sectarianism," Paul W. T. Kingston examines rights-oriented advocacy networks within Lebanon s postwar civil society, focusing on movements and political campaigns based on gender relations, the environment, and disability. Set within Lebanon s postwar sectarian democracy, whose factionalizing dynamics have long penetrated the country s civil society, Kingston s fascinating study provides an in-depth analysis of the successes and challenges that ensued in promoting rights-oriented social policies. Drawing on extensive field research, including interviews and a wealth of primary documents, Kingston has produced a groundbreaking work that will be of interest to Middle East experts and nonexperts alike."
Options for Lebanon
by Nawaf A. Salam (no photo)Synopsis:
This book is an in-depth examination of the policy options available to help overcome the multi-faceted political, economic, and social crisis that continues to engulf Lebanon nearly fifteen years after the conclusion of the Taif agreement in 1989. Though remarkable in ending the cycles of violence that had ravaged this country since 1975, Taif dramatically failed to put Lebanon on the track of state-building. Politics in Lebanon are still dominated by parochial concerns and sectarian interests, neither the successive governments nor most of the opposition groups have been seriously engaged in formulating national policies capable of confronting the new, and often structural, problems of post-war Lebanon.
33 Day War: Israel's War on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Its Consequences
by
Gilbert AchcarSynopsis:
This book assesses the causes and consequences of the impact on the recent Middle East war. The authors describe the popular basis of Hezbollah in Lebanon among the Shiites, but also its relation to the country's other religious communities and political forces. They analyze the regional roles of Syria, Iran, and Hamas as well as the politics of the United States and Europe. The authors dissect the strategic and political background behind recent actions taken by Israel; the impact of Israel's incursion into Lebanon and effects on Lebanon's population -- and the consequences of the war on Israel polity and society.
Lebanon: Fire and Embers - A History of the Lebanese Civil War
by Dilip Hiro (no photo)Synopsis:
Once known as the Switzerland of the Middle East, Lebanon, the only Arab state headed by a Christian president, slipped into one of the longest civil wars in history in April 1975. With a few interludes of uneasy peace, and two invasions by Israel, the conflict continued until October 1990. In this account of the people, politics and policies that led to the internal strife in this troubled republic, and fuelled it for nearly 16 years, Dilip Hiro lays bare the intricate twists and turns of regional and international diplomacy and military strategies, involving not only Lebanon's various Christian and Muslim factions but also Syria, Israel, the PLO, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, America, France and the United Nations. The conflict cost Lebanon half a million casualties, including 150,000 dead, a quarter of them children, in a country with a population of 3.5 million.
Resistance: My Life for Lebanon
by Souha Béchara (no photo)Synopsis:
In 1988, at the age of twenty, Souha Béchara attempted to assassinate General Lahad, chief of militia in charge of Israeli-occupied Southern Lebanon. Immediately apprehended, interrogated, and tortured for weeks, she was sent to Khiam, a prison and death camp regularly condemned by humanitarian organizations. After an intense Lebanese, European, and even Israeli campaign in her favor, she was released in 1998.
In a time when special attention is paid to the violent conflicts in the Middle East, and Americans despair of understanding what motivates Palestinian suicide bombers, the story of a secular Orthodox Christian left rebel risking her life to rid her country of occupying forces will resonate with Americans looking to understand why young Palestinian girls blow themselves up in crowded Jerusalem markets.
Finally a book appears which clarifies, in the most personal terms, why the conflict in Israel and Palestine continues unabated. Coming directly from the voice of a practitioner of armed struggle who was labeled a "terrorist," Resistant
1. Humanizes the most misunderstood side of the situation,
2. Offers an insight into the roots of a complex social problem and
3. Provides a personal memoir of resistance and oppression
Beirut on the Bayou: Alfred Nicola, Louisiana, and the Making of Modern Lebanon
by Raif Shwayri (no photo)Synopsis:
Raif Shwayri begins his family s story with his grandfather Habib Shwayri s arrival at Ellis Island in 1902. Having left Beirut, then a harbor city on the Syrian coast of the Ottoman Empire, only weeks before, he took the name Alfred Nicola and made his way to relatives in New Orleans. There, he began peddling down the Bayou Lafourche, befriending the communities living alongside the water and earning the nickname Sweet Papa for his kindness and generosity. When he returned home to Lebanon in 1920, he invested the money he had made, from years of peddling, in real estate and died a wealthy man in 1956. After his death, his youngest son, Nadim (Raif s father), turned his part of the inheritance into an endowment that started Al-Kafaat, an iconic and unique institution in Lebanon that serves the handicapped and underprivileged.
Alfred Nicola s story, like the story of Lebanon itself, begins farther back in history. In its account of centuries of Ottoman rule, decades of colonial occupation, and years of internal political strife and civil war, "Beirut on the Bayou" intertwines a family narrative with the story of a people, of Lebanon in the making. From the Fertile Crescent that was Syria to the Crescent City that is New Orleans, the saga of the Shwayri family reflects the experiences of those Lebanese who walked the path of immigration to the United States, as well as those who stayed behind or returned to help forge a nation."
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
I Remember Beirut (other topics)Charles Corm: An Intellectual Biography of a Twentieth-Century Lebanese “Young Phoenician” (other topics)
An Invitation to Laughter: A Lebanese Anthropologist in the Arab World (other topics)
The Price of a Vote in the Middle East: Clientelism and Communal Politics in Lebanon and Yemen (other topics)
Spheres of Intervention: US Foreign Policy and the Collapse of Lebanon, 1967-1976 (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Zeina Abirached (other topics)Jean Marc Bertrand (other topics)
Franck Salameh (other topics)
فؤاد إسحق الخوري (other topics)
Daniel Corstange (other topics)
More...
Since we are doing the Middle Eastern challenge; setting up one thread per Middle Eastern country is a good idea.
About Lebanon:
Lebanon (i/ˈlɛbənɒn/ or /ˈlɛbənən/; Arabic: لبنان Libnān or Lubnān, Lebanese Arabic: [lɪbˈneːn], Aramaic לבנאנ ), officially the Lebanese Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية اللبنانية Al-Jumhūrīyah Al-Libnānīyah, Lebanese Arabic: [elˈʒʊmhuːɾɪjje l.ˈlɪbneːnɪjje]), is a country in the East Mediterranean.
It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity.
The earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history.
Lebanon was the home of the Phoenicians, a maritime culture that flourished for over a thousand years (c.1550–539 BC). In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, and eventually became one of the Empire's leading centers of Christianity.
In the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion and identity.
However, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, a religious divide that would last for centuries. During the Crusades the Maronites established strong ties with the Roman Catholic invaders, ties that influenced the region into the modern era.
The region eventually came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, a political situation that lasted for centuries. Following the collapse of the Empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon were mandated to France.
The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon, which was mostly populated by Maronites and Druze, to include more Muslims.
Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing a unique political system – "confessionalism" – that is a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities.
Bechara El Khoury (independent Lebanon's first President) and Riad El-Solh (Lebanon's first Prime Minister) are considered the founders of the modern Republic of Lebanon and are national heroes for having led the country's independence. French troops withdrew from Lebanon in 1946.
Before the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), the country experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, and banking.
Because of its financial power and diversity, Lebanon was known in its heyday as the "Switzerland of the East".
It attracted large numbers of tourists, such that the capital Beirut was referred to as "Paris of the Middle East." At the end of the war, there were extensive efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure.
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon