“An evocative portrait of a great but tragic metropolis.” — Gilbert Taylor Booklist 20101101 “A significant and important book for anyone with an interest in the city and its ongoing troubles, the Middle East in general and in the relationship between modernity and urbanity.” — Ghassan Hage The Australian 20110202 “Kassir embodied Beirut’s variant of the polyglot Levantine ideal… His biography of the city of which he was a vital constituent is unlikely to be surpassed.” London Review Of Books 20120308 “A unique contribution to the growing literature on modern and contemporary Lebanon… Erudite, evocative, and highly compelling.” Review Of Middle East Stds 20120828 “Kassir charts in intricate detail the damage done to Beirut through architectural crimes that portended the greater destruction to come.” — Charles Glass London Review Of Books 20120308 “A definitive history of the city.” Middle East Journal 20110331

One of the leading voices for progressive change in the Middle East, Samir Kassir (1960-2005) taught at the Institut des Sciences Politiques of the Universite Saint-Joseph in Beirut, worked as a journalist and editorial writer for the daily An-Nahar newspaper there, and was a co-founder of the Democratic Left Movement in Lebanon. The author of several other books, including Being Arab, Kassir was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut in June 2005.