Book Review: Middle East: The Opening of South Lebanon, 1788–1840
| Author | Richard M. Saunders |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206401900145 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK REviEws
127
THm OPNINmG
OF
SOUTH
LEBANON,
'1788-1840. A
Study
on
the
Impact
of
the
West
on
the
Middle
East.
By
William
R.
Polk.
1963.
(Cam-
bridge:
Harvard
University
Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saun-
ders.
xiii,
299pp.
$6.25)
To
anyone
who
has
lived
in the
Lebanon
this
book
has
an
unmis-
takeable
air
of
perceptive
realism
about
it.
The
author has
himself
lived
in
a
Lebanese
village
and
has thereby
gained
an
insight
into
local
conditions
and
feelings,
into a
way
of life,
and
this
is
a
sine
qua
non
to
any
proper
study,
present
or
historical,
of
the
region.
He
has gained
the
feel of
the
country.
He
has
also
made
use
of a
great
deal
of
hitherto
unused
local
documentary
material,
much
of
it
of
extreme
difficulty.
And
he
has
conducted
a
wide
and
intensive
exploration
of
more
usual
materials,
many,
if
not
most
of
which
have
never
been
utilized
for
this
sort
of a
study.
In
the
end
he
has
come
up
with a
piece
of
first-class
original scholarship
in
a
field
where
almost
nothing
has
been done.
If
the
book
is
informative
but
not
as
readable
as
it
might
be
it
is
partly
because
it
is
so
much
a work
of
primary
scholarship, and
partly
because
of
the
nature
of
the
subject.
What
is
being
studied is especially
the
social
and
economic
structure
of
the
South
Lebanon
before
arid,
particularly,
during
the
Egyptian
occupation
of
the
1830's.
What
is
revealed is
the
almost
incredible
complex
of
relations
between
families,
villages
and
religious
groups
which
was
and
is
characteristic
of
the
Lebanon. The
traditional
autonomy
of
the
Mountain
made
local
rela-
tions
all
the
more
important,
and
intrigue
blossomed
naturally
amidst
it
all.
All
attempts
to
deal
with
the
Lebanon
on
a
more
simplified
basis,
especially
those
that
were
foreign-inspired,
be
they
Ottoman
or
Egyp-
tian,
only
resulted
in
bitter
resentment
and
further
complications.
The
author
shows
convincingly
that
the Egyptian
occupation
repre-
sented
a
watershed
in
the
development
of
this
area
for
it
was
during
this
time
that
European and
Westernizing
influences--economic,
political
and
cultural-started
to
gain the
upper
hand.
From this
time
the
Lebanon
was
to
be
more
and
more
involved in
the
affairs
of
the
outside
world.
Its
traditional
way
of
life
was
to
be
increasingly undermined.
Nonetheless
so
much
of
the traditional
still remains
there
that
no
one
can
hope
to
understand
the
difficulties
that
outsiders encounter
in
that
area
or
the
problems
of
the
present
rulers
without
thoroughly
absorbing
this
background.
This
kind
of
basic
information
has
been
and
is
far
too
lacking
amongst
those
who
conduct
the
relations
of
the
Western
powers
in
this
area.
For
this
reason
it
is
to
be
hoped
that
the
author
will
go
on
from
this
scholarly
first essay,
for
which
he
is
to
be
highly
congratu-
lated,
to
a
more
general
and more
readable
account
of
Lebanese
history.
There
is
a
contribution
to
be
made
there
too.
University
of Toronto
RiCHARD
M.
SAuNnDma
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