Lebanon Adrift: From Battleground to Playground

by Samir Khalaf

Lebanon today is at a fateful crossroads in its eventful socio-cultural and political history. Imperiled by unsettling transformations, from postwar reconstruction and rehabilitation to the forces of postmodernity and globalism, it remains adrift.

In this landmark study, Samir Khalaf explores how ordinary citizens, burdened by the consequences of war, persisting regional rivalries, mounting economic deprivation, and diminishing prospects for well-being, find meaning and coherence in a society that has not only lost its moorings and direction, but also its sense of control.

Samir Khalaf is professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut. He has held academic positions at Harvard, Princeton, MIT, and New York University.

294 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2012

About the author

Samir Khalaf is a Lebanese sociologist. He was born in Beirut on October 14, 1933. He has written extensively on the Arab world and on Lebanon in particular. The majority of themes in his work include sexuality in the Arab world, the Lebanese Civil War, Urbanization, and the role of the Protestant missionaries in the Levant. He is currently a professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut, and has also been a director of the Centre for Behavioural Research there since 1994.

Khalaf received his bachelor's degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut in 1955, and later his MA in Sociology in 1957. Furthermore, he obtained an MA in Economics and Sociology in 1959, and PhD in Sociology in 1964 from Princeton University.

Reviews

[Yaaser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Discusses the residues of the Civil War and the subsequent collective terror, collective amnesia, collective trauma, the profane religiosity and sacralized consumerism. It traces back the illness of Lebanese society and narrates the gloomy story of Lebanon in the second half of the last century. Elegant, beautifully written, richly informative BUT overtly nostalgic and fraught with clichés, lamentation and romanticization, albeit aptly and compellingly.