This book argues that the modern state, from the nineteenth century to the contemporary period, has consistently been used as a means to measure civilizational engagement and attainment. This volume historicizes this dynamic, examining how it impacted state-making in Lebanon and Syria. By putting social, political, and economic pressure on the Ottoman Empire to replicate the modern state in Europe, the book examines processes of racialization, nationalist development, continued imperial expansion, and resistance that became embedded in the state as it was assembled. By historicizing post-imperial and post-colonial state formation in Lebanon and Syria, it is possible to engage in a conceptual separation from the modern state, abandoning the ongoing reproduction of the state as a standard, or benchmark, of civilization and progress.

Analyzes how the modern states in the Levant were assembled and how they function today Explores the histories and interactions between the international and local governments in the Levant Argues that the modern state in the Global South was a product of shifting standards of civilization

Autorentext

Andrew Delatolla is Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds, UK.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The Standards of Civilization and the Production of Statehood.- Chapter 3: Equality as a Standard of Civilization: The Opposition Towards Ottoman Tolerance.- Chapter 4: Race, Religion, and Civilization in Programs of Governance and Modernization.- Chapter 5: Territory, Identity, and Governance: Creating Order from Disorder.- Chapter 6: Violent Resistance: Interactions with Modernity and European Interference.- Chapter 7: Nationalism as Resistance: Acquiescing to European Identifiers.-Chapter 8: Preventing Autonomy: European Interests and the Application of a Standard of Civilization.- Chapter 9: Conclusion: Taking Histories of Post-Colonial Statehood Seriously.