How did the lands that are today Syria survive the vicissitudes of centuries of Ottoman, Egyptian, and French rule, only to stand in ruins today, shattered by a brutal civil war? To provide answers, James Reilly traces five centuries of Syrian history, from the Ottoman period to the present. Reilly brings to life the myriad historical, cultural, social, economic, and political factors that have bound Syrians together, as well as those that have torn them apart. Drawing on extensive primary sources and recent historiography in English, French, and Arabic, he has written an essential book for those who want to understand not only contemporary Syria, but also the Middle East region.CONTENTS: Introduction. Syria Becomes Ottoman, Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Syria's "Long" Eighteenth Century: Political Crises and Local Rulers. Syria Between Europe and the Ottomans, 1820s-1900s The Idea of Syria and World War I. France and the Creation of the Syrian Territorial State. Crises of Independent Statehood. Thirty Years of Hafez al-Assad. A False "Spring" and Gathering Storms. Uprising, Civil War, and Fragmentation. Syria Divided.