Description
Book SynopsisPostwar Beirut conjures up contradictory images of remarkable openness and inconceivable violence, of great antiquity and a bright future. The Lebanese capital stands for Arab cosmopolitanism and cultural effervescence but also for its tragedies of destruction. This book examines the historical formation of Beirut as a multiply contested Mediterranean city.Fin de Siècle Beirut is a landmark contribution to the growing literature in Ottoman studies, in Arab cultural history and on Mediterranean cities. Combining urban theory, particularly Henri Lefebvre''s work on cities and capitalism, with postcolonial methodology, the central thesis of this book is that modern Beirut is the outcome of persistent social and intellectual struggles over the production of space. The city of Beirut was at once the product, the object, and the project of imperial and urban politics of difference: overlapping European, Ottoman, and municipal civilising missions competed in the political fields of administra
Trade ReviewThis is a fundamental work, based on research in Archives in Istanbul, Paris and Kew as well as extensive readings of newspapers, books and unpublished theses. * Philip Mansel, Times Literary Supplement *
Table of ContentsPART I: CAPITALIZATIONS; PART II: MEDIATIONS; PART III: URBAN WORDS - URBAN WORLDS
