Reddit mentions: The best lebanon history books

As an American who grew up in Beirut I can only tell you how jealous I am.

My advice:

1)Learn Arabic. Yes it's hard, and no you won't master it. And yes, everyone speaks English, French or both...but do it.

2) Learn the history - it's very interesting and people will be impressed that you cared enough to do so.

Start with: http://www.amazon.com/Beirut-Samir-Kassir/dp/0520271262/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348796298&sr=1-1&keywords=Beirut

http://www.amazon.com/Beware-Small-States-Lebanon-Battleground/dp/1568586574/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348796349&sr=1-1&keywords=beware+of+small+states

3) Almost everybody has a home town/village. Learn the geography and accept all invitations to visit. Beirut is great, but you learn Lebanon from the small towns.

4) Yes, Americans are appreciated and given some slack. But get yourself an informal coach there and give them permission to enlighten you on the cultural norms. They are very different than the US and if you can make mistakes only once, you show you are interested and care.

5) The Lebanese food is the best in the Middle East and they are very proud of it. Learn it before you go and try everything....over and over again. Even the stuff you don't like to begin with will grow on you.

6) Find a brie (drinking jug) and learn to drink out of the spout (this means swallowing while the water is still coming out. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cP-2t4P84Og/TI4r2ji5hxI/AAAAAAAABCg/C5ZmKwrNSYI/s1600/IMG_1257.jpg

I've spent some time in Lebanon and I'm writing my honours thesis on the Lebanese Civil War, so I can probably help you quite a bit!

Robert Fisk - Pity the Nation: Robert Fisk was the one of the first foreign journalists to go into the camp during the massacre, so his first hand account of it in this book is pretty important.

Lucile Volk - Martyrs and Memorials: This is a great little book representative of the more modern historiographic type regarding Lebanon, I'm sure there's something about Sabra & Shatila in there.

Fawazz Trablousi - A History of Modern Lebanon This is the text you should read to give yourself some quick context on the conflict as well as understand the economic and social aspects behind the broader conflict.

For articles and such I would recommend checking out JSTOR, does your university have access to it? I wrote a (terrible) paper years ago on whether Sharon was legally culpable for the massacre so I'll see if I can dig it out for you and see what sources I used.

The Lebanese civil war was shockingly complicated and the 1982 invasion was only a facet of it. If you have any questions or want some clarification, feel free to PM me and I'll help as best I can.

Cheers!

Yeah, I'm in the middle of this book right now; its surprising to hear the level of support that Hezbollah has with Christians and secular Muslims in the area.

Fantastic review. I haven't read it yet but it's been on my to-read list for months ever since I heard of this guy. But I always thought the 10-year time limit he prophesies is wishful at best. Western academics have been portenting the demise of Arab regimes for decades now. Especially the Gulf ones. I think they just can't understand how such flimsy states could have come into existence. It goes against all of their ingrained understanding of how states work for one with arbitrary borders to be created somewhere and named after a family.


Anyway speaking of books. I really want to get my hands on these 2:

• Inventing Lebanon: Nationalism and the State Under the Mandate
  
  
• Metamorphosis of the Nation (al-Umma): The Rise of Arabism and Minorities in Syria and Lebanon, 1850-1940
  
  
  I discovered these recently at a friend's house. He's doing a master's in war studies (yes, such a field exists. And yes, had i known it existed i would have chosen it instantly), and have been anxious to get them since. Alas, buying them looks impossible. I'll have to resort to a library

I learned a lot from his book Pity the Nation about the history of Israel-Palestinian relations and the Lebanon War, guy has some brilliant insight.

Also great is his 3-part series Beirut to Bosnia which was banned from being re-aired on Discovery after tons of pressure from advertisers and pro-Israel groups.

Fisk is beyond legit IMO.

http://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Beirut_to_Bosnia

edit- thanks for the lecture! going to listen to it immediately

Check out Franck Salameh : Language, Memory, & identity in the Middle East and Charles Corm: An Intellectual Biography of a Twentieth-century Lebanese Young Phoen...

This is a book that does a pretty decent job explaining the history of the Shia in Lebanon. I purchased it and read it last year, it's not exactly the most insightful as it focuses mostly on the politics rather than the actual history. But it answers a lot of your questions regarding Shia treatment in Lebanon, and how we ended up the majority in the Jnoub and Baalbek from Mount Lebanon (thanks France...)


https://www.amazon.com/Shia-Lebanon-Clans-Parties-Clerics/dp/1848858140

Although I haven't read it, myself, Lebanon: A History, 600 - 2011 by William Harris comes highly recommended as a, thorough, yet contrite, and unbiased, yet delicate examination of Lebanon's history from 600AD - 2011.

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, there was an earlier post dealing with the same topic on this sub, no?

 

Update: Found the post

Interesting backstory. I will probably postpone reading this for now, it would bring back a lot of violent memories from my childhood probably :) Thanks for the suggestion though.

Norman Finkelstein himself usually recommends these three books pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict:

​

Benny Morris, Righteous Victims

Zeev Maoz, Defending the Holy Land

Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation

​

As an aside, I'd also highly recommend Finkelstein's own Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.


​

Yeah no kidding. I've been "randomly selected" on all but three trips in my last 20. I flew with this book after losing a bet during the NHL playoffs last year (that's right, I'm a sand person and a hockey fan) and ended up being detained for 3 hours and missing my flight. I'm just grateful I didn't end up on a no-fly list.

The funniest part of all this is that I fly pretty much everywhere domestically with weed or weed products, including the time I was detained with the book.

No problem, not meaning to sound like his agent or anything but i really recommend his book Pity the Nation which is about the Lebanon war which he covered extensively, powerful stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Pity-Nation-Abduction-Lebanon-Books/dp/1560254424

I also recognise that they are indeed propaganda networks at play in this crisis but i was genuinely surprised that you believed fisk ( whom i agree and disagree with about certain things) was on some pro-war western intervention side when he is actually well known for being for being quite hostile with such enterprises.

>but there is an alliance with hezbollah and ba’athists within lebanon



The Syrian Ba'ath and the Iraqi Ba'ath are totally different.

If you want a place to begin read, you can start with this: https://www.amazon.com/Muqtada-al-Sadr-Shia-Revival-Struggle/dp/1416551476

And this: https://www.amazon.com/Pity-Nation-Abduction-Lebanon-Books/dp/1560254424

https://www.amazon.com/Pity-Nation-Abduction-Lebanon-Books/dp/1560254424/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1497027621&sr=8-2&keywords=robert+fisk

> Norton's book Hezbollah

Just to clarify: is this the book you mean?

he cites his source: “In the decade preceding the outbreak of the war the CP [Communist Party] had considerable success among Shi’i Lebanese. The recruiting pattern of the OACL [Organisation for Communist Action in Lebanon] is similar: the leadership is drawn from all communities, the mass of its members are Shi’i.”

Hanf, Coexistence, 76.

He's good..he gets a lot of stick for his pains.

A couple of books you may like..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pity-Nation-Lebanon-at-War/dp/0192801309

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-War-Civilisation-Conquest-Middle/dp/1841150088/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Has anyone read this book :
The Lebanese Connection: Corruption, Civil War, and the International Drug Traffic

http://www.amazon.com/The-Lebanese-Connection-Corruption-International/dp/0804781311

Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk. Fisk covered the Lebanon war (one of the first reporters on scene at the Sabra & Shatila massacre), the invasion of Iraq, nd he covers the Syrian war today. He writes for the Independent and lives in Beirut.

It is even more interesting when you get into it.

If you ever have the urge to learn about this time in Lebanon, which we haven't brought up, the American military attack, The Israeli invasion, the Syrian invasion, The Palestinians, and the Civil War that were happening all during the 1980's I recommend this book: Pity the Nation.

Which takes it's name from the Lebanese Poem:

>Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave

and eats a bread it does not harvest.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero,

and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream,

yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice

save when it walks in a funeral,

boasts not except among its ruins,

and will rebel not save when its neck is laid

between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox,

whose philosopher is a juggler,

and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting,

and farewells him with hooting,

only to welcome another with trumpeting again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years

and whose strongmen are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into fragments,

each fragment deeming itself a nation.”