Winning Lebanon: Youth Politics, Populism, and the Production of Sectarian Violence, 1920–1958 (Cambridge Middle East Studies, Series Number 59)

By the mid-twentieth century, youth movements around the globe ruled the streets. In Lebanon, young people in these groups attended lectures, sang songs, and participated in sporting events; their music tastes, clothing choices and routine activities shaped their identities. Yet scholars of modern Lebanon often focus exclusively on the sectarian makeup and violent behaviors of these socio-political groupings, obscuring the youth cultures that they forged. Using unique sources to highlight the daily lives of the young men and women of Lebanon's youth politics, Dylan Baun traces the political and cultural history of a diverse set of youth-centric organizations from the 1920s to 1950s to reveal how these youth movements played significant roles in the making of the modern Middle East. Outlining how youth movements established a distinct type of politics and populism, Winning Lebanon reveals that these groups both encouraged the political socialization of different types of youth, and, through their attempts to 'win' Lebanon -- physically and metaphorically -- around the 1958 War, helped produce sectarian violence.-- Provided by publisher "Ma dama al-shabab m'ana fainana la shaka najihun With the youth at our side, there is no doubt we will succeed. This slogan from the Kata'ib, a Lebanese youth organization, reflects a sentiment shared across the globe in the twentieth century: youth, however defined-by age, class, gender- mattered. Kata'ib leadership knew this, and surely had the youth with them, whether measured by the tens of thousands of young Kata'ib members, their investment in the group's ideology, or their participation in Kata'ib rituals. In July 1958, for example, the Kata'ib held a ceremony for new members at its headquarters in Beirut, Bayt al-Kata'ib, or the "Kata'ib home." In the space that hosted many gatherings, ranging from lectures to sport tournaments, young men and women congregated alongside party officials and supporters to "perform the oath" (ta'diyya al-yamin). This included the routine dedication to party and nation, "in service of Lebanon," another Kata'ib slogan since the 1930s. Thereafter, recruits received their membership cards from the president of the party, Pierre Gemayel. He congratulated each individual on their "engagement in the new party life." The event then ended with the singing of the Kata'ib anthem, played by its very own band"-- Provided by publisher Using unique sources to highlight the daily lives of the young men and women of Lebanon's youth politics, this study traces the political and cultural history of a diverse set of youth-centric organizations from the 1920s to 1950s to reveal how their distinct type of politics and populism would play a role in the making of modern Lebanon.