A History of Modern Lebanon

'Puts Lebanon's long war into a context that makes it comprehensible and, perhaps, inevitable. Everyone who is curious about that beautiful and tormented country should read his history, one of the best yet' -- Charles Glass, author of The Northern Front and The Tribes Triumphant 'Skillfully weaving together social, political, cultural and economic history, this deeply informed and penetrating study provides a rich understanding of the vibrant, tragic, but ever hopeful Lebanese 'door to East and West'' -- Noam Chomsky 'This is a unique work. Fawwaz Traboulsi provides a compelling account of Lebanon's emergence as a state, a critical appraisal of its autonomy, a pathbreaking analysis of its social origins in the intimate and ever changing relationship of caste and class' -- Irene Gendzier, Professor of History, Boston University 'Traboulsi writes what has eluded us for a long time, a history of modern lebanon that includes the civil war and post civil war periods' -- Maya Mikdashi, Jadaliyya

Fawwaz Traboulsi is Associate Professor teaching history and politics at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. He is the editor in chief of the pan-Arab political-cultural quarterly Bidayat, published in Beirut and the author of A History of Modern Lebanon (Pluto, 2012).

Introduction Acknowledgements Chronology Glossary Section One: Ottoman Lebanon 1. The Emirate of Mount Lebanon (1523--1842) 2. The Bloody Death of the Muqata`ji System (1842--1861) 3. Grandeur and Misery of the Mutasarrifiya (1861--1915) 4. Beirut, Capital of Trade and Culture (1820--1918) Section Two: State and Society 5. Dialectics of Attachment and Detachment (1915--1920) 6. From Mandate to Independence (1920--1943) 7. The Merchant Republic (1943--1952) 8. The Pro-Western Authoritarianism of Kamil Chamoun (1952--1958) 9. Shihabism and the Difficult Autonomy of the State (1958--1970) 10. The Pre-War Crises (1968--1975) Section Three: the Wars of Lebanon 11. Reform by Arms (1975--1976) 12. The Longest Coup dEtat (1977--1982) 13. The War Order (1983--1990) 14. Ambiguities and Contradictions of the Taif Agreement Bibliography Notes Index