Download or read book Ambiguities of Domination written by Lisa Wedeen and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-09-09 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treating rhetoric and symbols as central rather than peripheral to politics, Lisa Wedeen’s groundbreaking book offers a compelling counterargument to those who insist that politics is primarily about material interests and the groups advocating for them. During the thirty-year rule of President Hafiz al-Asad’s regime, his image was everywhere. In newspapers, on television, and during orchestrated spectacles. Asad was praised as the “father,” the “gallant knight,” even the country’s “premier pharmacist.” Yet most Syrians, including those who create the official rhetoric, did not believe its claims. Why would a regime spend scarce resources on a personality cult whose content is patently spurious? Wedeen shows how such flagrantly fictitious claims were able to produce a politics of public dissimulation in which citizens acted as if they revered the leader. By inundating daily life with tired symbolism, the regime exercised a subtle, yet effective form of power. The cult worked to enforce obedience, induce complicity, isolate Syrians from one another, and set guidelines for public speech and behavior. Wedeen‘s ethnographic research demonstrates how Syrians recognized the disciplinary aspects of the cult and sought to undermine them. In a new preface, Wedeen discusses the uprising against the Syrian regime that began in 2011 and questions the usefulness of the concept of legitimacy in trying to analyze and understand authoritarian regimes.
Download or read book Among the Jasmine Trees written by Jonathan Holt Shannon and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does a Middle Eastern community create a modern image through its expression of heritage and authenticity? In Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria, Jonathan H. Shannon investigates expressions of authenticity in Syria's musical culture, which is particularly known for embracing and preserving the Arab musical tradition, and which has seldom been researched in depth by Western scholars. Music plays a key role in the process of self-imaging by virtue of its ability to convey feeling and emotion, and Shannon explores a variety of performance genres, Sufi rituals, song lyrics, melodic modes, and aesthetic criteria. Shannon shows that although the music may evoke the old, the traditional, and the local, these are re-envisioned as signifiers of the modern national profile. A valuable contribution to the study of music and identity and to the ethnomusicology of the modern Middle East, Among the Jasmine Trees details this music and its reception for the first time, offering an original theoretical framework for understanding contemporary Arab culture, music, and society.
Download or read book Fragile Nation Shattered Land written by James A. Reilly and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Syrian state is less than 100 years old, born from the wreckage of World War I. Today it stands in ruins, shattered by brutal civil war. How did this happen? How did the lands that are today Syria survive incorporation with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century and the trials and vicissitudes of the Sultan's rule for four centuries, only to collapse into civil war in recent years? Arguably it was the Ottoman period that laid the fragile foundations of a state that had to endure a turbulent twentieth century under French rule, tentative independence, a brutal and corrupt dictatorship and eventual disintegration in the twenty-first. Across a diverse cast of individuals, rich and poor, James Reilly explores these fractious and formative periods of Ottoman, Egyptian and French rule, and the ways that these contributed to the contradictions and failings of the rule of the Assad family; and to a civil war which produced the so-called Islamic State. In charting Syria's history over the last five centuries in their entirety for the first time, Reilly demonstrates the myriad historical, cultural, social, economic and political factors that bind Syrians together, as well as those that have torn them apart. Based on primary sources, recent historiography in English, French and Arabic and more than 30 years' experience living and working in the region, this is the essential book for understanding modern Syria and the Middle East.
Download or read book The Contemporary Art Scene in Syria written by Charlotte Bank and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-31 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the expanding contemporary art scene in Syria, particularly Damascus, during the first decade of the twenty-first century. The decade was characterized by a high degree of experimentation as young artists began to work with artistic media that were new in Syria, such as video, installation and performance art. They were rethinking the role of artists in society and looking for ways to reach audiences in a more direct manner and address socio-cultural and socio-political issues. The Contemporary Art Scene in Syria will be of interest to scholars of global and Middle Eastern art studies, and also to scholars interested in the recent social and cultural history of Syria and the wider Middle East.
Download or read book Syria Crucified written by Zachary Wingerd and published by Ancient Faith Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tragic war in Syria along with the plight of the Christians there remains among the most misunderstood situations in the world today. Syria Crucified seeks to contribute to better understanding in the West by giving a voice to individual Syrian Christians living in exile from their homeland. These men and women have undergone horrific trauma and loss without losing their faith in God or the ability to forgive their persecutors. Their first-person accounts, framed by the authors' narration for historical, cultural, and geopolitical context, are both edifying and inspiring.
Download or read book Contemporary Syria written by Eberhard Kienle and published by I.B.Tauris. This book was released on 1994-10-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the same time, political repression has eased and a greater degree of participation has been introduced. Both economic and political change coincide most strikingly with Syria's participation in the Arab-Israeli 'peace process'.
Download or read book Revolution in Syria written by Kevin Mazur and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing local trajectories of conflict, Mazur explains how the Syrian uprising became a civil war fought largely along ethnic lines.
Download or read book An Inside Story of Modern Syria written by Omar Imady and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2023-02-22 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Syrian Arab Republic has rarely been out of the headlines following the rise to power of Hafiz al-Asad in 1970 and Bashar al-Asad in 2000 and has been at the heart of the popular protests which have come to be known as the Arab Spring. This is a political biography of the author's father, Dr Muhammad Imady, the longest-serving minister of economy in modern Syria, and holder of several senior government posts. Dr Imady served at the center of government, personally and professionally, during Hafiz al-Asad’s presidency, and was an intimate and objective observer of all aspects of Syria's turbulent history. Omar Imady follows his father’s story from his beginnings to the present day, charting out the seemingly never-ending civil conflict, human suffering, and international interventions that plague the country’s past and present. This is an inside story based on rare sources and experiences from both father and son. It illustrates the original and unique contribution of Muhammad Imady as a 'Damascene Reformer', a rare individual who pursued the seemingly impossible task of implementing positive change while serving a regime that demanded obedience and loyalty in response to actions often at odds with Muhammad Imady’s own liberal democratic political ideas. At its heart, this book examines the timeless challenge of maintaining one’s own integrity and principles in the face of a power system which seems bent on promoting the opposite.
Download or read book The Ba th and the Creation of Modern Syria RLE Syria written by David Roberts and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the development of modern Syria focusing on the contribution of the Ba’th party and Ba’thist ideology. It examines the roots of the Ba’th in the intellectual ferment of the 1940s and charts its growing influence on Syrian politics. Special attention is devoted to the crucial Sixth Congress of the Ba’th Party in 1963 and the key ideological document, the Muntalaqat, produced by Michel Aflaq. After 1963 the military became increasingly dominant until Hafiz al-Asad came to power in 1970. Since then the Party has been less dominant internally but Syria itself has established a pivotal position in regional affairs. The book concludes by reviewing the prospects for Syria after Asad and the potential for a Ba’thist revival.
Download or read book Syria written by Richard T. Antoun and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1991-09-10 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of the processes of change in contemporary Syria as well as its historical, social, and cultural underpinnings. A number of distinguished anthropologists, historians, political scientists, and literateurs examine key issues such as the changing Syrian family, political factionalism, the sedentarization of nomads, bureaucratic corruption, rural-urban migration, the development of the Ba'th Party, Syria's political isolation, religious resurgence, and the continued importance of sects in Syrian life. This book strikes a balance between examining the consequences of Syria's geographical and strategic position in international politics and the implications of its internal and highly complex ethnic and class structure and culture. It argues that the religious culture of Syria is as important as the leadership of Asad and, more generally, that an understanding of Syrian politics must be matched by an understanding of Syrian society and culture.
Download or read book Among the Jasmine Trees written by Jonathan Holt Shannon and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first ethnographic study of music-making in modern Syria
Download or read book Fragile Nation Shattered Land written by James A. Reilly and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-16 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Makers of Modern Syria written by Sami Moubayed and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the aftermath of World War I Syria paved a path towards democracy. Initially as part of the French mandate in the Middle East and latterly as an independent republic, Syria put in place the instruments of democratic government that it was hoped would lead to a stable future. This book tells the story of Syria's formative years, using previously-unseen material from the personal papers of Ahmad Sharabati, a prominent nationalist who served in different capacities during colonial times and early independence, first as minister of defense and then as minister of education. His experiences and those of others of his generation tell the story of Syria's short-lived democratic years, up to the union with Egypt as the United Arab Republic between 1958 and 1961.
Download or read book The Formation of Modern Iraq and Syria written by Eliezer Tauber and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the impact of clandestine and overt political organizations in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq after World War I. It analyzes Amir Faysal's short-lived state in post-war Syria, relations between Syrians, Iraqis and Palestinians, and nationalist activity within Iraq.
Download or read book Authoritarian Apprehensions written by Lisa Wedeen and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-09-15 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the Arab uprisings initially heralded the end of tyrannies and a move toward liberal democratic governments, their defeat not only marked a reversal but was of a piece with emerging forms of authoritarianism worldwide. In Authoritarian Apprehensions, Lisa Wedeen draws on her decades-long engagement with Syria to offer an erudite and compassionate analysis of this extraordinary rush of events—the revolutionary exhilaration of the initial days of unrest and then the devastating violence that shattered hopes of any quick undoing of dictatorship. Developing a fresh, insightful, and theoretically imaginative approach to both authoritarianism and conflict, Wedeen asks, What led a sizable part of the citizenry to stick by the regime through one atrocity after another? What happens to political judgment in a context of pervasive misinformation? And what might the Syrian example suggest about how authoritarian leaders exploit digital media to create uncertainty, political impasses, and fractures among their citizens? Drawing on extensive fieldwork and a variety of Syrian artistic practices, Wedeen lays bare the ideological investments that sustain ambivalent attachments to established organizations of power and contribute to the ongoing challenge of pursuing political change. This masterful book is a testament to Wedeen’s deep engagement with some of the most troubling concerns of our political present and future.
Download or read book Syria written by John F. Devlin and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-10-30 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1983, Syria: Modern State in an Ancient Land presents a concise profile of Syria in which the author depicts the factors that shaped modern Syria, introducing its land, people, and culture and explaining how it moved from being the coup - prone cockpit of inter-Arab politics to the relative stability in the 1980s. He discusses how its political system functions, the development of its moderate socialist economy, the nation's external affairs (particularly within the Middle East), and issues for the future-the last of particular interest because Syria is in a process of change in its politics, society, and international relationships. Throughout he provides a framework within which to understand and assess the developments in Syria in the 1980s. This is a must read for students of Middle East studies and Middle East history.
Download or read book Among the Ruins written by Christian C. Sahner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible history of Syria's cultural and religious past documents such issues as the role of Christianity in society, the emergence of the Ba'ath party, and the arrival of Islam, and traces the origins of the current civil war.
