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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.
"It focuses on the sociocultural bases of political culture in Syria. It offers a variety of insights into Syrian society that one cannot find in a single work on Syria." — Fauzi M. Najjar, Center of Integrative Studies, Michigan State University
Preface
Donald Quataert
Note on Transliteration
Chronology
Glossary
Table: Syria: Area and Population
Map: Distribution of Population in Syria, 1970
Map: Syria: Administrative Divisions
Introduction. Ethnicity, Clientship, and Class: Their Changing Meaning
Richard T. Antoun
1. Syrian Political Culture: A Historical Perspective
Philip S. Khoury
2. Class and State in Ba'thist Syria
Raymond A. Hinnebusch
3. The Alawis of Syria: Religious Ideology and Organization
Fuad I. Khuri
4. Land Reform and Class Structure in Rural Syria
Sulayman N. Khalaf
5. The Emancipation of Women in Contemporary Syrian Literature
Salih J. Altoma
6. Asad: Between Institutions and Autocracy
Patrick Seale
7. The Nature of the Soviet-Syrian Link under Asad and under Gorbachev
Helena Cobban
Notes
Bibliography
Contributors
Index