Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon
French rule in Syria and Lebanon coincided with the rise of colonial resistance around the world and with profound social trauma after World War I. In this tightly argued study, Elizabeth Thompson shows how Syrians and Lebanese mobilized, like other colonized peoples, to claim the terms of citizenship enjoyed in the European metropole. The negotiations between the French and citizens of the Mandate set the terms of politics for decades after Syria and Lebanon achieved independence in 1946.\...
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Thompson shows how post-WWI Syrians and Lebanese mobilized to claim the terms of citizenship enjoyed in the European metropole. Colonial Citizens highlights gender as a central battlefield upon which the relative rights and obligations of states and citizens were established. Philip S. Khoury Elizabeth Thompson has produced the most original and exciting study on the relationship of gender to politics and culture in the Middle East in the first half of the twentieth century. Historians of Syria and Lebanon and of the French Empire will find much new to feast upon. Others interested in the ways citizenship and democracy are understood in today´s Arab world will be grateful to Thompson for revealing their early manifestations in the Levant. I highly recommend this book.
I. WAR AND THE ADVENT OF FRENCH RULE: A CRISIS OF PATERNITY1. World War I: Famine, Memory, and a Shattered Social Order2. Soldiers and Patriarchs: Pillars of Colonial Paternalism3. Bureaucrats: Mother France's Civilizing MissionII. PATERNAL REPUBLICANISM AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUBALTERN CITIZENS4. State Social Policy: Constructing a Hierarchy of Citizens5. Revolt: The Rise of Subaltern MovementsIII. GENDER AND THE LEGAL BOUNDARIES OF THE COLONIAL CIVIC ORDER6. Political Rights: Women's Suffrage as a Revolutionary Threat7. The Veil and the Dual Legal System8. Civil Rights: Patriotic Motherhood and Religious Law Reform9. Social Rights: Emergence of a Colonial Welfare StateIV. GENDERING THE PUBLIC: SPATIAL BOUNDARIES OF THE COLONIAL CIVIC ORDER10. Remapping the Urban Landscape11. Street Violence: Regendering an Old Urban Space12. Cinemas: Gendering a New Urban Space13. The Press: Gendering the Virtual PublicV. WORLD WAR II AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE COLONIAL CIVIC ORDER14. Climax of the Colonial Welfare State15. Claiming Paternity of Independent Republics16. The Making of Postcolonial Citizens
\ American Historical Review - Margaret L. Meriwether\ This book deserves to be widely read. One of the most significant contributions to the historiography of modern Syria and Lebanon in recent years.\ \ \ \ \ \ American Historical ReviewThis book deserves to be widely read. One of the most significant contributions to the historiography of modern Syria and Lebanon in recent years.\ — Margaret L. Meriwether\ \ \ \ Beth BaronThompson introduces a new set of conceptual tools for understanding the history of Syria and Lebanon. Looking through the lens of gender and weaving together the stories of marginalized groups, she recasts events of the world wars and interwar years in an innovative framework. Colonial Citizens forces a rethinking of colonialism and citizenship in the Middle East and elsewhere. Beautifully written, artfully argued, gender history at its best.\ \ \ \ \ Roger OwenA landmark history of the making of the modern Syrian and Lebanese civic order.\ \ \ \ \ Philip S. KhouryElizabeth Thompson has produced the most original and exciting study on the relationship of gender to politics and culture in the Middle East in the first half of the twentieth century. Historians of Syria and Lebanon and of the French Empire will find much new to feast upon. Others interested in the ways citizenship and democracy are understood in today´s Arab world will be grateful to Thompson for revealing their early manifestations in the Levant. I highly recommend this book.\ \
