Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics) (Hardcover)

by Augustus Richard Norton (Author)
Key Phrases: secular parties, United States, Imam Hussein, Nabih Berri (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this remarkably thorough, articulate portrait of Hezbollah, Norton, a Boston University anthropology and international relations professor and former U.S. Army officer and U.N. military observer, analyzes how the organization was formed, how it evolved and its current role in Lebanese politics. More than just an Iranian-funded terrorist organization, Hezbollah is a comprehensive provider of social services to Lebanon's disenfranchised Shiite masses, and a highly respected political player, known to forswear corruption. Formed in 1982 under Iranian tutelage, and prompted by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Hezbollah has made a goal of fomenting Islamic revolution in Lebanon and authorizes violence to this end. In the 1990s, its policies in support of this goal began to include parliamentary participation. After the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah has emerged invigorated, flexing its military might and winning support through its rigorous postwar reconstruction. Norton's authoritative account is rooted in such important Middle East themes as the historical division between Sunni and Shiites and the origins of Iranian influence in Arab affairs. It is also personal, speckled with anecdotes from more than three decades of experience. Given the contentious subject, Norton's tone is remarkably even: Hezbollah is an organization he respects, but whose actions he does not condone. 10 b&w photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)
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From The Washington Post
Reviewed by Jonathan Finer

Twenty-five years ago, Hezbollah was a ragtag religious militia, founded under the thumb of Israel's long occupation of southern Lebanon and struggling against stronger rival groups for the hearts and minds of Lebanon's Shiite underclass. Today, Hezbollah is a political party, a social-service organization and a military power that emerged from a hard-fought standoff with the Israeli army last summer as the dominant player in Lebanon's politics and perhaps the most formidable nonstate actor in the Middle East.

Augustus Richard Norton's timely Hezbollah chronicles that dramatic evolution and its sweeping implications for the region and beyond. His lucid primer is the first serious reappraisal of the radical Shiite group since last summer's war shattered six years of relative calm on one of the world's most volatile frontiers.

Like many tales told in the Arab world, Norton's thin volume (at fewer than 170 pages of main text, it is CliffsNotes-esque, down to its black-and-yellow cover) begins and ends at the dinner table. The opening aperitif is a sumptuously described feast in a Lebanese farming town soon after Israel pulled out of its self-declared security zone in south Lebanon in 2000; the dessert course is a ritual iftar spread to break the daily Ramadan fast in Cairo at the close of the 2006 war. In between, Norton traces Hezbollah's establishment with the help of its Iranian and Syrian patrons; its triumph over its rival, the Shiite movement Amal; its gradual embrace of electoral politics; and the ascension of a charismatic cleric, Hasan Nasrallah, as its leader.

A former U.N. military observer in Lebanon who now teaches at Boston University, Norton has written a book rich in reportage, particularly for a work by an academic. He concludes with an overview of the 33-day conflict that began on July 12, 2006, after Hezbollah fighters stormed across the Israel-Lebanon border, ambushed an Israeli patrol and captured two Israeli soldiers. Days later, Israel launched an assault that leveled much of southern Lebanon even as Hezbollah rained Katyusha rockets on northern Israeli towns.

Norton's stated purpose here is to counter the "simplistic stereotypes" about Hezbollah with "a more balanced, nuanced account of this complex organization." It is a worthy but daunting goal. Analysts have long (and vainly) agonized over even how to describe the group dispassionately. Calling it a political party (Hezbollah is Arabic for "party of God") ignores Hezbollah's pioneering use of terrorist tactics such as the suicide bomb. Dubbing it a mere militia discounts the fact that it holds about a quarter of the seats in Lebanon's parliament. Both versions are rooted in truth.

For the most part, Norton's account is careful and judicious. Hezbollah's opponents will chafe at the dearth of Israeli and American voices and at occasional passages that sound sympathetic to the group (Norton notes, for example, the "stunning success" of the "daring raid" that triggered the recent war). Hezbollah's followers, meanwhile, may object to Norton's portrayal of that conflict as, at best, a Pyrrhic victory since it uprooted a quarter of Lebanon's population and inflicted $4 billion worth of damage to its infrastructure.

For the American reader, Hezbollah is a topic particularly worthy of attention. As of Sept. 10, 2001, Hezbollah had killed more U.S. citizens than any comparable group (most notably more than 240 Marines in a 1983 suicide bombing in Beirut). Its influence now resounds throughout the Iraq war. Insurgents there employ ever more lethal versions of the roadside bombs that once targeted Israeli convoys in southern Lebanon. And followers of the firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a relative of one of Hezbollah's founders, have used the Hezbollah blueprint, with its Iranian-backed militia and loyalty-inspiring social services.

But the most remarkable aspect of Hezbollah's rise, in Norton's view, is that it transcends the region-wide sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shiites that the Iraq conflict has sparked. Sunni demonstrators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia now sport Nasrallah T-shirts. When I left Israel for Amman at the close of last summer's war, my driver, a Lebanese Arab Christian, said he had hated Hezbollah all his life, but no longer. By standing up to Israel, he explained, the group had "given all Arabs back their dignity."

But toward what end? The main shortcoming of Norton's book is that it begs weighty questions and leaves them largely unanswered -- a function, perhaps, of its limited breadth and scope. A more critical account might ask, as Hezbollah's Lebanese rivals have, if its emergence has enhanced or enfeebled the Lebanese state. After the war, Norton writes, one veteran local analyst concluded, "Any hope for a true national unity in Lebanon has again become a dream." If so, the reader is left wondering, how should Hezbollah's 25-year project be judged?

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (March 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691131244
• ISBN-13: 978-0691131245
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #152,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even-Handed Portrayal That Avoids The Hysteria, May 12, 2007

By	E. Beaver "bored_sailor" (Yokosuka, Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Lumped into the one size fits all portrayal of terror groups popularized by the media and the government, the author performs a valuable public service in removing Hezbollah from this fog of uncertainty and falsehood, portraying it accurately amid the context of radicalization and growing awareness within the Shia community in the 70's and early 80's. Norton highlights the inherent conflict within Hezbollah between pragmatism and dedication to the founding tenets of the organization.
It is the resolution of this conflict that will determine the fate of Lebanon amid the power struggles ongoing in the aftermath of the summer 2006 conflict that the author says split Lebanon into two groups; those who support the goals of the Cedar Revolution and those who feel victimized by the corrupt government and elites, seeking to share power at the expense of the Sunni power structure.
The pragmatism of Hezbollah seems without limits, whether cooperating with Communist or Christian groups in political parlays or in adhering to the "rules of the game" devised by them and the Israelis during the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon. It is this pragmatism that sets Hezbollah apart from other Islamist political organizations and Norton does a fine job of exploring it in detail.
A fascinating look that could have been far longer and examined far more but remains one of the best on the subject.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to the Party of God, October 19, 2007

By	Lee L. (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

In this short, but revealing book, Norton has provided an excellent overview of the history and politics surrounding Hezbollah. The book contains chapters on the founding of the group, its internal dynamics, as well as how it operates in the regional context. Unlike some analysis of the group, Norton freely discusses both sides of the group: the side that operates and behaves like an organized and effective political party, and the side that can be characterized as a terrorist organization. Norton does this with relative ease and a clear and direct writing style. He demonstrates that the group has evolved at a rapid pace and that no one can say with absolute certainty how the group will continue to evolve.

Unlike Harik's work on Hezbollah, Norton does a fine job of retaining some neutrality here and does not let a great deal of personal opinion seep into what should be a scholarly work. He has an impressive amount of experience working inside Lebanon and is thus very close to the subject he writes about, but this does not appear to have caused him to tilt one way or the other. His chapter on the July 2006 war with Israel is proof of that. His treatment of a highly controversial subject is remarkably balanced. He identifies what both sides were doing and thinking at the time and how it led to the outbreak of real hostilities.

The book is relatively short, but it was not meant to be a sweeping and comprehensive history. He deals with all of the important aspects of the group and the finished product should be read by all those seeking a greater understanding of Hezbollah. Anything Norton produces in the future will be essential reading for the field.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but ultimately less than satisfying, account of Hezbollah, July 11, 2007

By	Utah Blaine (Somewhere on Trexalon in District 268) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Dr. Norton's short history of Hezbollah provides a nice introduction to the birth, development, and evolution of this complex organization for American (and other English speaking) readers. The US media almost always portrays Hezbollah as an anti-Semitic, Islamofascist, terrorist organization that is opposed to Israel, America, and freedom because they are `evil'. The reality is, of course, much more complex. If you are tired of reading the US media's propaganda about Hezbollah and want to learn a bit more about reality, this is a good place to start.

There are several strengths to this book, and in particular, there are several key points that Norton addresses that I feel are especially significant. First, I think that the reader who is relatively new to Hezbollah and/or Lebanese history and politics in general will better understand the complexities and non-linearities amongst the various confessional groups. The relationships, both internal and external, between the various actors in Lebanon CANNOT be simply understood in terms of the Arab/Israeli, Shi'ite/Sunni, Muslim/Christian, and pro/anti Syrian forces. The alliances among all the major players inside Lebanon (e.g. Hezbollah, AMAL, the various Maronite and Orthodox groups, etc.) as well as with the outside players (primarily Syria, the US, France, and Israel) are constantly changing. Second, I think that the centrality of the Palestinian issue will become clearer to most readers. There are hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living as non-citizens in Lebanon, and this was the most important (but certainly not only) cause of the disintegration of the Lebanese govt in the mid-70s. This problem still hangs over everything else in Lebanon. Any permanent resolution of the internal problems in Lebanon MUST be part of a larger Arab/Israeli (i.e. Palestinian/Israeli) settlement. Third, this book explores some of the religious and ideological underpinnings of the revolutionary worldview of Hezbollah. The nature of this worldview is widely misunderstood by Western observers, and Norton attempts to explain some of the underpinnings of this world view. Fourth, Hezbollah has always claimed that its existence is necessary to defend Lebanon from Israel. Norton discusses this point at length and presents in detail the opposing view that Israel would have left Lebanon long before 2000 and would not have bombed Lebanon in 2006 if Hezbollah disarmed. We'll never know what would have happened if Hezbollah had disarmed after the 1989 peace agreement, but my personal feeling is that the Israelis would today be draining the water from the Litani river to fill the swimming pools of their settlers without Hezbollah. Finally a significant fraction of the book is devoted to the build up and events of the Israeli attack on Lebanon in 2006. Dr. Norton presents an informative and balanced view of events here in my opinion (in spite of what Mr. Frantzman writes in his review).

The major negative comment that I have about this work is that it is too short. I know that this is supposed to be a `short history', but I think that the astute reader will readily discern that an enormous amount of detail has been swept under the rug. In the end, the interested reader will be left wanting more, and will only start to understand some of the complexities of Hezbollah. Bottom line though is that whether you support Hezbollah, view them as a terrorist organization, or have no opinion and simply want to learn more, I think that Dr. Norton's work is well balanced introduction into the complexities of Hezbollah.