17.7 What has been written by Lebanese and/or about Lebanon?
Description
This article is from the Lebanon FAQ, by Alaa Dakroub dakroub@leb.net with numerous contributions by others.
17.7 What has been written by Lebanese and/or about Lebanon?
Another book is titled "The Struggle Over Lebanon" by Tabitha Petran. It
was published in 1987 by Monthly Review Press (New York). The book is
a well-written analysis of the making of modern Lebanon and chronicles
the war years. The analysis is particularly rich in identifying the
roles and actions of external actors and does a superb job linking
these outside interests with the local leadership that allied itself
to them.
The back cover holds strong recommendations for the book by three
authorities on the area. They are Rachid Khalidi, Edward Said, and
Noam Chomsky. Said calls it "an astonishing chronicle...a powerful and
magisterial narrative dense with human dram and political insight."
Petran is unique among westerners that have written about Lebanon in
that she was not an "in and out quick" journalist. Unlike so many who
wrote about the Lebanese war, she did not visit the country for a few
weeks, squeeze in a dozen interviews and then provide western audiences
with a shallow tale of how horrible life was at the Commodore hotel.
Petran lived in Lebanon from 1962 till 1986. She had a clear view of
the pre-war conditions and of the modern history of the country. She
lived through the crucial Lebanese history years of 1967-1975. Her
book is rich with deep analysis and a wealth of historical facts. Of
the 383 pages of text, she allocates over a hundred pages to a
wonderfully succinct summary of Lebanon's modern history. The rest of
the book covers the 1975-1986 period. There are 30 pages of notes
that would particularly useful for interested scholars.
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