Includes index.

List of tables and illustrations -- Preface -- 1. Introduction -- Setting -- Multiethnicity -- Identification -- 2. Formation -- Transformations -- The Lebanese Awakening -- Independent Lebanon: Factos for Integration and for Disintegration -- 3. Society -- Modernization -- city and Village -- Literary and Intellectual Life -- Education -- 4. Economy -- Accomplishments -- Vulnerability -- Reform -- Since 1975 -- 5. Polity and Politics -- Institutions -- Parties -- International Vulnerability -- The Palestinian Factor -- Two Portraits: Cahmoun and Joumblatt -- 6. The Collapse of 1975 -- Prelude -- Civil War -- Retrospect -- 7. Interlude: 1976-1982 -- Fragmentation -- Proposals for Reconstruction -- The Israeli Invasion and its Sequels -- Selected and Annotated Bibliography -- Index.