Beirut Radical - by Dylan Baun (Hardcover)

About the Book

The story of Imad Nuwayhid, a Lebanese student, communist, traveller, hotel employee, and "martyr" of the Lebanese Civil War, offering a global microhistory of this era of radical youth politics and culture, as well as how it is remembered today

Book Synopsis

Imad Yusuf Nuwayhid was born in 1944 in the Lebanese village of Ras al-Matn. He came of age in the 1960s, splitting time between Beirut and Europe. And he died in 1975, the start of the Lebanese Civil War.

But who was Imad Nuwayhid? Was he a leftist intellectual? A self-interested hotel worker? A fighter dedicated to Palestinian liberation? A tragic symbol of what happened to those caught in the crosshairs during the war? Through archival and oral history, Beirut Radical finds that Imad was none of these things alone, but all of them together.

Beirut Radical takes up Imad Nuwayhid as a global microhistory-a window into the global sixties, the war, and its aftermath. Baun argues that Imad's beliefs and actions, crystalized during two tumultuous decades of the Cold War, signal a young generation of what he terms "practical radicals." While much more is known about their politics and support for left-wing ideologies, Imad's life highlights how they pursued them, equally, alongside their career aspirations. Imad's death in the war, then, shows the twisting path by which some young leftists ceded their autonomy to liberation struggles. Lastly, Beirut Radical follows Imad's afterlife, examining how multiple actors to Lebanon's war, some in concert (party and family members), some in resistance (some family), claim individuals and their memory, during and beyond wartime. More than anything perhaps, Beirut Radical is a meditation on the intimate, the personal, the ethics, and the micro-level of history.

Review Quotes

"The book tells the life story of a little-known Druze leftist who fought and died in the Lebanese Civil War. As a global microhistory, it allows us to appreciate a number of important historical trends in the third quarter of the twentieth century, including the rise of American empire; the emergence of pan-Arab, pro-Palestinian, left-wing activism; and a politics of memorializing "martyrs" that has important resonance in Lebanon today." --Kyle J. Anderson, Associate Professor, SUNY Old Westbury, USA

"Beirut Radical will become an essential read for scholars and students involved in Lebanese Studies, Syrian Studies, Arab Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Islamic Studies, and the history of the Left in the Middle East. It brings biographical history and archival research to bear on the socio-economic and political history of Lebanon and the Arab World. More specifically, it sheds light on the aspirations of an important segment of society and its struggles against the Lebanese state and its sectarian system while espousing the cause of the Palestinians and their fight for justice and liberation. These types of studies, which explore the deep connections between several local, national, and Arab struggles and analyze the context and aims of the revolutionary movements that emerged from 1960 until 1975, are simply not available... The author has consulted a rich body of archival sources in various languages, family records, newspapers reports, and oral history. He produced a comprehensive study and analysis of a complex history that integrated the central events in the life and experiences of a revolutionary activist, Imad Nuwayhid, with the larger context of the civil war (1975-1990)." --Malek Abisaab, Associate Professor, McGill University, Canada

About the Author

Dylan Baun is Associate Professor of History at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He is the author of Winning Lebanon: Youth Politics, Populism, and the Production of Sectarian Violence, 1920-1958 (2021) which won the 2022 SERMEISS Book Award.