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A review by margaret45678
A History of Modern Lebanon by Fawwaz Traboulsi
A mixed bag. Traboulsi is a good writer and I would have liked to see more analysis of the often very complex sequences of events. At times he explores in detail the contradictory impulses acting upon Lebanese social, political, and economic life, but at other times these contradictions are not explicitly addressed. For instance, I'm still left wondering why the Phalange, with its marked hostility and aggression towards Palestinians in Lebanon (even before establishing a formal relationship with Israel), would accuse the PLO-allied Left of collaborating with "foreigners" and Zionists to destroy the Palestinians (in one instance, making this accusation shortly after Phalangist forces massacred a bus-load of Palestinians!). I understand that politicians of all stripes have no principles beyond what will get them the most power, but why was this a rhetorical strategy that made sense to the leadership of the Phalange at the time? (The question of why Israel would collaborate with a far-right Christian militia which was literally inspired by the Hitler Youth also requires some explanation, at least from people who maintain Israel's "right to exist.")
I also felt like I was missing out on some of the regional context, especially the situation within Syria at any given time, though I can't expect a book like this to give a comprehensive history of the entire Middle East. More maps would have been helpful; the timeline and glossary in the back were useful, though I noticed some terms used in the text were not defined at all in the glossary or elsewhere.
What I will say is that the edition I read (the 2nd) was full of errata and typos. Generally, this didn't affect the comprehensibility of the content, but it's definitely not a good look. I actually checked Pluto Press's website to see if they provide copy editing because this is the second of their publications I've read that has had these types of errors (apparently they do provide it, but maybe they didn't in 2012?). However, the presence of all these typos really serves to underline Traboulsi's skill - I still found the text very fluid and easy to read, if not always easy to fully understand.
There were a few things which didn't quite make sense and probably should have been caught by an editor - ex. at the end of chapter 2, Traboulsi makes a fleeting reference to "the 'accident' of the two muleteer boys of Bayt Meiri in 1859," as if this accident had been described in detail earlier in the chapter, which it hadn't - unless I'm completely blocking it from my memory somehow? Maybe things got a bit garbled when the first edition was updated.
Still, very informative and important reading for the current situation of the world. France's ambitions after WWI to turn Lebanon into a "Christian homeland" - not to mention assurances given to the US that Bashir Jumayil's regime would turn Lebanon into a Christian version of Israel - are highly significant.
I also felt like I was missing out on some of the regional context, especially the situation within Syria at any given time, though I can't expect a book like this to give a comprehensive history of the entire Middle East. More maps would have been helpful; the timeline and glossary in the back were useful, though I noticed some terms used in the text were not defined at all in the glossary or elsewhere.
What I will say is that the edition I read (the 2nd) was full of errata and typos. Generally, this didn't affect the comprehensibility of the content, but it's definitely not a good look. I actually checked Pluto Press's website to see if they provide copy editing because this is the second of their publications I've read that has had these types of errors (apparently they do provide it, but maybe they didn't in 2012?). However, the presence of all these typos really serves to underline Traboulsi's skill - I still found the text very fluid and easy to read, if not always easy to fully understand.
There were a few things which didn't quite make sense and probably should have been caught by an editor - ex. at the end of chapter 2, Traboulsi makes a fleeting reference to "the 'accident' of the two muleteer boys of Bayt Meiri in 1859," as if this accident had been described in detail earlier in the chapter, which it hadn't - unless I'm completely blocking it from my memory somehow? Maybe things got a bit garbled when the first edition was updated.
Still, very informative and important reading for the current situation of the world. France's ambitions after WWI to turn Lebanon into a "Christian homeland" - not to mention assurances given to the US that Bashir Jumayil's regime would turn Lebanon into a Christian version of Israel - are highly significant.