Antun Sa’adeh: The Man, His Thought: an Anthology

Adel Beshara

Antun Sa’adeh, a nationalist thinker who lived from 1904 to 1949, was one of the major intellectual figures of modern Syria. The impact of his ideas has been felt in politics, literature and philosophy, as well as in the social sciences. Indeed, the publications for which he was best known (“The Rise of Nations”, “The Ten Lectures”, “Intellectual Struggle in Syrian Literature”, and “The Folly of Immortality”), have had a broad influence on the politico-intellectual movement in Syria and throughout the Arab World. Sa’adeh’s life was a unique blend of dedicated, perpetual struggle, righteous idealism, and theoretical pragmatism. He was not simply an outspoken figure on the political stage, but attempted the revolutionary treatment of paramount social and economic ills. This book is a collection of scholarly articles by leading authorities on Antun Sa’adeh’s thought. The collection covers various aspects of his thought and not just his political views. The contributors to this volume discuss several aspects of Sa’adeh’s thought, thus providing a guide to further study and reflection. The essays deal with specific issues, the arguments and counter-arguments that have been voiced, and they try, whenever possible, to take the various interpretations of various aspects of Sa’adeh’s thought a few steps further. It provides a synopsis of the work done hitherto in the field, discusses the important studies published over the past fifty years, including the most up-to-date work, and at the same time identifies the main problems that have arisen in Arabic as well as English secondary sources. Thus it provides on the one hand a reference work summarizing previous research in the field and at the same time it is an original work of synthesis and new interpretations. It is one of the first works on Sa’adeh to look on many aspects of his thought by leading authorities in the field.

Adel Beshara studied Economics at La Trobe University and Political Science at the University of Melbourne. He received his PhD in History in 2002 from the University of Melbourne where he is also a teacher and a Fellow of the Department of History. His previous publications include Syrian Nationalism: An Inquiry in to the Political Thought of Antun Sa’adeh (1995); The Politics of Frustration: The Failed Coup of 1961 (Routledge, 2004) and several articles in leading journals on the Middle East.

Hardback • 235 mm x 165 mm • ISBN 9780863723087 • 640 pages • £35.00