Syrians in the Shadow of War: Everyday Struggles and Survival

Gripping accounts of how ordinary Syrians strove to survive the hardships that preceded the Assad regime’s collapseActivists striving in the shadow of Syria’s police state; widows launching small businesses to feed their families; farmers tending fields battered by destruction, pollution, and drought: their voices are as central to Syria’s conflict as they are absent from most discussions of it.Drawing on more than three thousand interviews between 2017 and 2024, Syrians in the Shadow of War explores how ordinary people began picking up the pieces as battle lines froze and global interest in Syria waned.It documents the social and economic decay that preceded the Syrian regime’s spectacular collapse: the hollowing out of public services and productive industries, the disintegration of social ties, the trauma of a war seemingly without end.Equally important, it captures the resourcefulness through which Syrians helped one another survive, and which will prove vital in the uncertain stag