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The Lebanon War, by A.J. Abraham. Westport, CT and London: Praeger Publishers, 1996. xvii + 186 pages. Bibl. to p. 189. Index to p. 195. $55.
Lebanon: A Shattered Country, Myths and Realities of the Wars in Lebanon, by Elizabeth Picard. Tr. by Franklin Philip. New York and London: Holmes and Meier, 1996. xii + 174 pages. Append. to p. 177. Notes to p. 187. Sugg. Reading to p. 193. Index to p. 202. $29.50. Reviewed by Samir Khalaf
The post-Cold War period is ushering in renewed interest in countries like Lebanon. With the sudden implosion of the Soviet Union, the very existence of nation-states is being called to question, and countries are now falling prey to the same set of circumstances which continue to beleaguer Lebanon. Studies on Lebanon, if properly set within the post-Cold War context, could once again become informative and relevant. Otherwise, they could easily slip into a redundant and futile exercise. The two books under review are very telling in this regard: One falls too short on this and other grounds. The other is laudable, both in terms of what it purports to do and how it does it.
No matter how one looks at it, and this reviewer has tried hard to search for and disclose some of its elusive virtues, Abraham's book is disappointing. It is poorly conceived and even more poorly executed. It is not informed by any overriding thesis, and has no theme other than the author's repeated claim that the civil war (1975-91) was not religious in character. No perspective holds it together. It is predominantly a chronicle; often a dull and tedious narrative of a set of selective episodes.
The author claims that it is both a military and political essay, which is intended to highlight the internal issues of the war as they appeared to the Lebanese public. It has little of the "essay," if by that is meant an engaging, free-ranging and original exposition. Nor are we told how the salient issues of the war appear to the Lebanese public.
Abraham tells us that academic studies of the war have leaned too heavily on information provided by the US Embassy or the media coverage from the celebrated Commodore Hotel! Since both were...