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).

'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'

• IntroductionAcknowledgementsChronologyGlossarySection One: Ottoman Lebanon1. 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 Society5. 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 d’Etat (1977--1982)13. The War Order (1983--1990)14. Ambiguities and Contradictions of the Taif Agreement Bibliography NotesIndex

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).

'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'

• IntroductionAcknowledgementsChronologyGlossarySection One: Ottoman Lebanon1. 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 Society5. 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 d’Etat (1977--1982)13. The War Order (1983--1990)14. Ambiguities and Contradictions of the Taif Agreement Bibliography NotesIndex