Lebanon 1860-1960: A Century of Myth and Politics

A brief, brutal clash in Lebanon in 1958 followed the build-up of tensions between the country’s most prominent communities – Maronites, Druze and Sunnis. This quickly escalated into a full-blown national crisis, which saw US Marines landing on Beirut shores.This period of Lebanese history is often seen as the product of friction between pan-Arab nationalism and the growing threat to Western hegemony during the Cold War. But while orientation towards the West or the Arab world was a critical feature of these times, Kanaan argues that the 1958 flashpoint was the culmination of a century of unresolved conflict between these three groups. Each community had constructed a ‘history’ of Lebanon to justify its own ends, and each adhered to different...