Lebanon: A history 600-2011

Since the civil war, many revisionist historians have debunked popular theories of Lebanon as the historical bedrock of ‘Phoenicianism’ or a haven for persecuted minorities. The works of these authors challenge the rhetoric of those attempting to abuse history for political ends, and act as a rational voice amid the cacophony that is our political and socioeconomic narrative. “Lebanon: A History 600-2011,” written by the Levantine historian William Harris, however, is no such work. Instead, the author attempts to portray himself as an outside observer chronicling the history of how our deeply torn nation, devoid of any real reform, still exists today. This outsider status does have its uses in assessing how the fragmented pieces that make up Lebanon have not yet crumbled, in that Harris lacks the sectarian proclivity that many modern Lebanese historians naturally possess. The book proceeds in chronological order through two parts: 600 to 1840 and