"Inventing Lebanon examines the history behind an idea: a new policy of 'Greater Lebanon'. It shows how in the 1920s and 1930s, under the powerful influence of the French Mandate, with its own political and economic agenda, various groups of the local elite attempted to create what amounted to a new Lebanese nationalism. This new nationalism deliberately worked against the rising tide of Arabism and the equally threatening force of Syrianism, but it was crafted by the clannish and confessional considerations of the Lebanese elite. The result was a state that was carved into Maronite Christian, Sunni and Shiite power bases, only accentuating the divisions already inherent in this multi-ethnic and multi-faith society. These 'ethnopolitics' were to pave the way for the instability and wars that have plagued the country ever since, and are still so frighteningly present there today."--Jacket.