Lebanon: The Politics of Revolving Doors

Among the recent books on Lebanon this one is especially notable for the balance and clarity of its brief description of the decade of conflict which began in 1975, and also for the authority with which the author, an adviser to President Amin Gemayel in 1982-1984, recounts the negotiations, decisions and disasters of that period. Remarkably, even that chastening experience has not extinguished his basic optimism about the country's future.