Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-18T03:33:34.567Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - In Defense of Lebanon

The Nonsectarian Causes of the 1958 War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2020

Dylan Baun
Affiliation:
University of Alabama, Huntsville
Get access

Summary

Chapter 4 examines what transformed popular organizations from allies to enemies in the late 1950s. On one side of the conflict were those groups against the government and Lebanese President Camille Chamoun. They included the Progressive Socialist Party, Najjadeh, Lebanese Communist Party, and the Arab Nationalist Youth. In speeches, petitions, and articles, these groups claimed that Chamoun’s recent actions in domestic and foreign policy were authoritarian, represented a threat to sovereign Lebanon, and were grounds for armed revolution. On the other side were the Kataʾib and Syrian Social Nationalist Party. They made the point that foreign interference from Syria and Egypt, and its leftist sponsors in Lebanon (most notably, the Progressive Socialist Party), challenged Lebanon’s sovereignty, the constitution, and their group. Given that defending Lebanon and its sovereignty was not, at least in the eyes of multiple popular organizations, sectarian, Chapter 4 represents a need to rethink sectarianism among sociopolitical actors in and beyond 1958. Indeed, whether groups had clear sect majorities (the Kataʾib and Najjadeh) or not (the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and Lebanese Communist Party), I argue that their perspectives before the conflict were quite complex, linked to multiple factors, and cannot be reduced to sectarianism alone.

Type
Chapter
Information
Winning Lebanon
Youth Politics, Populism, and the Production of Sectarian Violence, 1920–1958
, pp. 128 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • In Defense of Lebanon
  • Dylan Baun, University of Alabama, Huntsville
  • Book: Winning Lebanon
  • Online publication: 16 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108863230.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • In Defense of Lebanon
  • Dylan Baun, University of Alabama, Huntsville
  • Book: Winning Lebanon
  • Online publication: 16 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108863230.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • In Defense of Lebanon
  • Dylan Baun, University of Alabama, Huntsville
  • Book: Winning Lebanon
  • Online publication: 16 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108863230.005
Available formats
×