Beirut Radical: A Global Microhistory from the Sixties to the Lebanese Civil War

Imad Yusuf Nuwayhid was born in 1944 in the Lebanese village of Ras al-Matn.He came of age in the 1960s, splitting time between Beirut and Europe. And he died in 1975, the start of the Lebanese Civil War.But who was Imad Nuwayhid? Was he a leftist intellectual? A self-interested hotel worker? A fighter dedicated to Palestinian liberation? A tragic symbol of what happened to those caught in the crosshairs during the war?Through archival and oral history, Beirut Radical finds that Imad was none of these things alone, but all of them together.Beirut Radical takes up Imad Nuwayhid as a global microhistory-a window into the global sixties, the war, and its aftermath.Baun argues that Imad’s beliefs and actions, crystalized during two tumultuous decades of the Cold War, signal a young generation of what he terms “practical radicals.” While much more is known about their politics and support for left-wing ideologies, Imad’s life highlights how they pursued them, equally, alongside their career