One of the leading voices for progressive change in the Middle East, Samir Kassir (1960-2005) taught at the Institut des Sciences Politiques of the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut, worked as a journalist and editorial writer for the daily An-Nahar newspaper there, and was a co-founder of the Democratic Left Movement in Lebanon. The author of several other books, including Being Arab, Kassir was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut in June 2005.

List of Illustrations Foreword by Robert Fisk Translator's Note Acknowledgments Abbreviations Prologue: The Eyes of the Mind Part One: From the Ancient to the Modern World 1. Beirut before Beirut 2. The Great Transformation 3. The Ibrahim Pasha Era 4. The Roads from Damascus 5. A Window on Ottoman Modernity Part Two: The Awakening 6. A Cultural Revolution 7. Between Boston and Rome 8. The Horizon of the World 9. Uncertain Identities Part Three: The Capital of the Mandate 10. France Broadens Its Mission 11. The French City 12. Grand-Liban and Petit Paris 13. A Crucible for Independence Part Four: The Cosmopolitan Metropolis of the Arabs 14. The Switzerland of the East 15. Beirut, Male and Female 16. The Pleasures of the World 17. Ecochard's Lost Wagers Part Five: The City of Every Danger 18. On the Knife's Edge 19. The End of Innocence 20. Beirut, O Beirut! Epilogue: To Be or To Have Been Notes Glossary of Arabic and Turkish Terms Bibliography Photographic Credits Index

"Samir Kassir's Beirut is a passionate tour de force, a love letter to that sparkling capital that takes us on a careening ride through its history. It's a tale that reads like a novel, peopled by missionaries and city-builders, warlords and intellectuals, diplomats and clan leaders. And all along, we know how it ends: in Beirut's implosion into the senseless violence and civil war from which, sadly, it has never fully recovered. Epic in scope, Kassir's masterwork shows us Beirut in all its richness, from its vibrant past to its uncertain, shaky future."--Robert Dreyfuss, author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam"Until the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975, Beirut was the unparalleled queen of the Eastern Mediterranean. In this panoramic work Samir Kassir invites us into 'the cosmopolitan capital of the Arabs', navigated through unearthing Beirut's Ottoman, Mandate, and post-independence past. Kassir's exquisite cultural history combines an erudite scholarship of urban form with an intimate reading of the city's collective biography. A truly exceptional work."--Salim Tamari, author of Mountain Against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture"Samir Kassir has given us a memorable history of Beirut. His tribute to the city he loved, and in which he was killed, is a testament of great fidelity and truth. A work that never falters, an exquisite narrative of a city that has known both joy and heartbreak. The definitive history of this city that has juggled and brokered competing identities."--Fouad Ajami, author of The Dream Palace of the Arabs"This is a fine book, accessible and well written, which will appeal to specialist and general readers alike. It explains why Beirut has been a byword not only for spasmodic violence, but also for some of the most interesting and important developments in the Middle East over the past two centuries. Balanced, tempered and learned, this book reminds us of how great a loss resulted from Samir Kassir's untimely death."--Rashid Khalidi, author of Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East"Kassir was an unusual kind of martyr in today's Middle East, a staunch secularist who wanted to live in a free country, not to die for one. In a region driven increasingly by a politics of death and sacrifice, he stood for a vision of peaceful reform, progressive social change and democratic secularism--the values of any left worthy of the name."--Adam Shatz, in The Nation