Levant : Splendour and catastrophe on the Mediterranean
Smyrna, Alexandria, Beirut, Beyrouth, Alexandrie, Smyrne, Levant, Middle East, Moyen Orient, histoire urbaine, culture urbaine, cosmopolitisme, Mansel Philip
<div><b>Abstract from the publisher : </b></div> </div> Levant is a book of cities. It describes three former centers of great wealth, pleasure, and freedom—Smyrna, Alexandria, and Beirut—cities of the Levant region along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. In these key ports at the crossroads of East and West, against all expectations, cosmopolitanism and nationalism flourished simultaneously. People freely switched identities and languages, released from the prisons of religion and nationality. Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived and worshipped as neighbors.<br /> <br /> Distinguished historian Philip Mansel is the first to recount the colorful, contradictory histories of Smyrna, Alexandria, and Beirut in the modern age. He begins in the early days of the French alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century and continues through the cities' mid-twentieth-century fates: Smyrna burned; Alexandria Egyptianized; Beirut lacerated by civil war.<br /> <br /> Mansel looks back to discern what these remarkable Levantine cities were like, how they differed from other cities, why they shone forth as cultural beacons. He also embarks on a quest: to discover whether, as often claimed, these cities were truly cosmopolitan, possessing the elixir of coexistence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews for which the world yearns. Or, below the glittering surface, were they volcanoes waiting to erupt, as the catastrophes of the twentieth century suggest? In the pages of the past, Mansel finds important messages for the fractured world of today.</div> </div> <b>Philip Mansel</b> is a historian of France and the Ottoman Empire. His publications include histories of Constantinople and nineteenth-century Paris, as well as biographies of Louis XVIII and the Prince de Ligne.</div> </div>
Philip Mansel
John Murray (UK) Yale University Press (US, forthcoming)
November 2010
480
Ouvrage
The urbanizing Middle East: The Brown journal of world affairs (Vol. 17, No. 1)
urbanisation, Middle East, Moyen Orient, Arab city, ville arabe, femmes, women, citoyenneté, ville en guerre, Dubai, Dubaï
<div><b>NB: To access the full text of these articles, free registration is required</b></div> </div> <b>Abstract from the publisher:</b></div> </div> The Brown Journal of World Affairs is a nonprofit, semi-annual publication produced at Brown University. It responds to the need for a clear, incisive, and dynamic examination of contemporary international issues. The Journal provides a forum for world leaders, policy makers, and prominent academics to engage in vigorous debate of intellectual breadth and vibrancy that bridges the gap between academic discourse and mainstream media.</div> </div> <b>Section contents:</b></div> </div> Hilal Khasan - The curse of underdevelopment and the radicalization of the Arab city</div> Valentine M. Moghadam - Urbanization and women's citizenship in the Middle East</div> Stephen Graham - Laboratories of war: United States-Israeli collaboration in urban war and securitization</div> Yasser Elsheshtawy - Little space, big space: Everyday urbanism in Dubai</div> </div>
Multiple authors
Brown University
Fall/Winter 2010
7-71
Revue
http://www.bjwa.org/index.php?issue=17.1