Livre - Lebanon

“This book will provide scholars with a useful and overdue reference.” – T.J. Gorton, Times Literary Supplement “One of the few recent works in English on the complete history of Lebanon in the Islamic period. Most books have strengths and shortcomings. Harris’s study is almost completely free of the latter. An excellent volume.” – Juan Romero, Middle Eastern Studies “The history of Lebanon remains culturally and religiously complex, and with this work… William Harris presents the reader with both a blueprint and a roadmap. Wither well-written prose and clear evidence, the author enables readers to navigate and unlock the labyrinth of Lebanese history – its people and its culture.” – Teaching History “Fifteen hundred years of history is a monumentally long and perilous journey that any historian, gifted and competent as he may be, would be foolhardy to undertake. Yet Harris promises and delivers history in the longue dure, in a gripping seamless narrative, bringing clarity, class, and depth to a story a rare few can tell without disorienting themselves and losing their readers along the way...A meticulous, ambitious, and compelling story of Lebanon.” – Franck Salameh, The Levantine Review “William Harris… offers a historical context and a set of arguments for considering the past and present of this complex, divided and vulnerable country… The book is well-sourced… The writing is clear and crisp [and] the reader never loses track of the narrative’s thread… Harris’s account offers much food for thought.” – James A. Reilly, Middle East Media and Book Reviews “This Herculean effort is the best book about Lebanon to come out in the past half decade. Intense at the beginning, where the author had to grapple with a scarcity of resources and the confusing jumble and black hole of ethnicities in the post-Roman collapse, the book is compact in the second half, which Lebanon became central to Roman attempts to penetrate and hold the Levant. The book is compelling, easily readable, digestible, and understandable.” – CHOICE “A successful account that provides much of value for those interested not only on Lebanese history but also that of the Middle East.” – The Historical Association William Harris is Professor of Politics at the University of Otago. He is the author of The Levant: A Fractured Mosaic and Faces of Lebanon: Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions.