Customer Reviews

Inside the Lebanese Confessional Mind

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Hilal Khashan, Lebanon's leading pollster, has written a cogent book that provided me with deep theoretical and methodological insights during the preparation of my Ph.D. thesis. In fact, many researchers on education employing the content analysis approach to confessional pluralism in Lebanon find this impressive empirical work useful to uncover the complex set of aggregated political factors which are pronounced and perhaps reproduced in this country's educational policies and practices. Judged by the sheer mass of new data and complex analysis which Professor Khashan provides, this book represents a major contribution to the understanding of the subtle and complex nature of the confessional conflict in Lebanon. This monograph has a twofold objective; first, it reviews some interesting methodological issues; and second, it presents the cornucopia of original findings reported by the author. The title of the book signifies a relatively new approach to research on the roots of the corrosive confessional conflict in Lebanon. This approach incorporates a range of theoretical perspectives and original quantitative-qualitative research techniques.... Khashan's work transcends all other works on Lebanon by the quality and comprehensiveness of his data, as well as the sophisticated statistical techniques which he expertly utilizes. This is a truly an unsurpassed book on Lebanese society. It tackles without apology difficult issues which most Lebanese do not like to discuss or even admit. ...Khashan's incorporation of regression analysis filled much of the gap caused by the paucity of empirical data on Lebanon's political viability. Shortage of statistics as those generated by the author in the past tended to stymie research on politics in Lebanon. In this book Khashan has addressed the political arena of Lebanon from a wholly new perspective for which he must be commended. Any observer of post-Tai'f Lebanese politics will readily endorse the author's conclusions and approve of his recommendations. This work shall continue to guide scholars surfeited of research in their own field into provocative horizons. Kamal E. Abouchedid, PhD., Center for Ethnic Studies in Education, The University of Manchester, UK.

With this, his name-making book, Hilal Khashan offers insightful analysis of the Lebanese predicament as manifested by the Lebanese themselves. He is to be commended for his courageous and path-breaking study. Professor Khashan has done what no other specialist on Lebanon has dared or could articulate before -- he has the presented the bitter facts as they are. This is one of the very few books on Lebanon that will guide us to a better understanding of Lebanese politics in the next millenium and beyond!