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5 - Fighting the Punks

The Routine Practices and Sectarian Outcomes of the 1958 War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2020

Dylan Baun
Affiliation:
University of Alabama, Huntsville
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Summary

Chapter 5 analyzes the dynamics of the fighting itself, starting in the summer months of 1958. First, it takes up the place of ritual in the 1958 War. By focusing on the Kataʾib’s shift, from the sidelines to frontlines, I argue that routine practices linked to youth belonging, play, and order were mobilized to perform violence. More broadly, whether it was singing a group anthem at an initiation ceremony before battle or marching in a funeral procession for a fallen fighter, popular organizations of all shades mobilized the youth cultures that were cultivated over past decades to win Lebanon. Chapter 5 also discusses several fronts of the war, including the final battle in Beirut between the Kataʾib and Najjadeh. While some scholars contend this phase was one of sectarian bloodletting, the reality was more complex. Neither side used exclusively sectarian discourse to describe other popular organizations. Instead, they deployed coded language, describing their enemies as maddened punks. This reality leads to Winning Lebanon’s main conclusion on sectarianism and sectarian violence. In the course of this conflict, youth, or youthfulness, terms with little connection to sect, became linked to sectarian violence, in practice and discursively, a trend that continued beyond 1958.

Type
Chapter
Information
Winning Lebanon
Youth Politics, Populism, and the Production of Sectarian Violence, 1920–1958
, pp. 155 - 185
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Fighting the Punks
  • Dylan Baun, University of Alabama, Huntsville
  • Book: Winning Lebanon
  • Online publication: 16 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108863230.006
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  • Fighting the Punks
  • Dylan Baun, University of Alabama, Huntsville
  • Book: Winning Lebanon
  • Online publication: 16 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108863230.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Fighting the Punks
  • Dylan Baun, University of Alabama, Huntsville
  • Book: Winning Lebanon
  • Online publication: 16 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108863230.006
Available formats
×