Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East - Hardcover

'A carefully documented, clearly-argued and elegant book that deserves to become the standard reference work on Lebanon and its neighbours for years to come.' --Literary Review

'Beware of Small States is a magnificent, scholarly achievement, amazing in its lucid and concise recounting of the tormented past century of Lebanese and Middle East history. With its publication, 33 years after his masterful The Gun and the Olive Branch , David Hirst reaffirms his place as a leading historian of the region.' --Irish Times

'[Hirst] is better qualified than anyone to write a sweeping modern history of the region from the perspective of this tiny, sliver of coastline that has seduced, infuriated and consumed one foreign invader after another ... Hirst rattles through this complex story with clarity and authority and puts the whole tragic story in the context of the wider Middle East conflict.' --Spectator

'Beware of Small States' wrote Mikhail Bukanin in 1870. He could have meant Lebanon: a sectarian state no bigger than Wales that has become battleground for one of the defining conflicts of twentieth-century history. Throughout its short existence, it has been attacked, invaded, occupied or interfered with to serve the political interests of foreign powers, resulting a series of devastating wars and crises. To understand Lebanon's history is to understand the history of the entire region - and, with the rise of Hizbullah, it has come to assume a disproportionate, dangerous power of its own. Iran and Israel now face each other in the hills of south Lebanon. David Hirst, author of The Gun and the Olive Branch, is a hugely respected commentator on the Arab-Israeli crisis. In a masterly narrative, he gives a much-needed, comprehensive history of the country and its conflicts, culminating with the recent war in Gaza and its fallout in Lebanon. Powerful and often moving, Beware of Small States is a magisterial book, essential reading for understanding Lebanon or the current political climate of the Middle East.