Traces of Empire: Decolonization and the United States in Lebanon, 1941-1967

This dissertation explores how the United States became an "imperial" power in Lebanese imaginations after its political decolonization.As Lebanon obtained its full constitutional independence in 1946, a shift occurred in how Lebanese peoples perceived and encountered U.S. global power.Despite the United States' anti-imperial rhetoric and support for Lebanese self-determination, many Lebanese increasingly grew disenchanted with real and imagined U.S. interferences in national and regional my hometown of Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.The bell signaling the break between first and second period had just gone off.As walked to my locker, I crossed the daytime custodian.Immediately following our regular morning greetings, she delivered the shocking news: the Twin Towers had been attacked.My first reaction-like that of many in my high school, the United States, and across the globe-was: who had done this and why?So many lives lost; and for what?For the remainder of the day, my Franco-Ontario friends and I turned to our teachers, wondering how such a tragedy could take place, and attentively tuned into CNN later that day for news.Born and raised in Cornwall, many of us often crossed the St.Lawrence River and traveled a mere ten minutes south into upstate New York.Many of us, therefore, felt connected to the United States.It was a part of our daily lives.Relatives of mine lived in nearby Massena, New York, and I visited them myriad times a year throughout my childhood.This said, Le Monde's memorable September 12 th headline, "Nous sommes tous Amricains," adequately represented the feelings of many in my small, non-American town, myself included.vii Long after U.S. president George W. Bush stood before the world and asked "why do 'they' hate 'us'?," 9/11 continued to impact my intellectual development.Prior to my high school graduation, my mother and aunt took my sister and I to New York City for a weekend of sightseeing.Transformed into a mere construction site, I personally encountered Ground Zero and witnessed all the messages left behind by others before me.A mere nine-months or so later, I sat in my first-year world history since 1945 class at the Universit d'Ottawa and engaged in vibrant discussions over the global war on terror and the United States' invasion of Iraq.Puzzled as to how and why such events took place, I developed an interest in the histories of U.S. involvement in the Middle East and Washington's relations with Arab-Muslim peoples.More specifically, I felt a need to challenge dominant stereotypes of Arab anti-Americanism and place the latter in its proper historical context.This dissertation, while far from offering definitive answers, is the culmination of ten-years of curiosity, dedication, and hard work.

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