Some works are works of a lifetime.
And this book is in that tradition. Everything about this scholar's life has led him to this book. Lebanon has been his home and vocation and calling. No one else in our field of Middle Eastern Studies could or would produce a book of this weight and seriousness and knowledge. Its mine of information, its interviews with the protagonist in that drawn-out struggle over Lebanon, the rich, textured data are all testimonies to a voracious commitment to tell Lebanon's tale.