Inventing Lebanon: Nationalism and the State Under the Mandate

Product Description Inventing Lebanon examines the history behind an idea: a new polity of €˜Greater Lebanon€™. It shows how, under the powerful influence of the French Mandate, various groups of the local elite attempted to create what amounted to a new Lebanese nationalism, carving the state into Maronite Christian, Sunni and Shiite power bases. The results only accentuated the divisions already inherent in this multi-ethnic and multi-faith society, and were to pave the way for the instability and wars that have plagued the country ever since. About the Author Kais Firro is Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of Haifa.