Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean

Levant is a book of cities. It describes the role of Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut as windows on the world, escapes from nationality and tradition, centres of wealth, pleasure and freedom. By their mix of races and religions, they challenge stereotypes. France and Britain liberated the area through their schools, while conquering it through arms. They were not only manipulators but manipulated, often invited in by local factions. Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut were both pacifiers and stimulants of nationalism. Nasser was born in Alexandria, Smyrna and Beirut became centres of Turkish and Arab nationalism. Using unpublished family papers Philip Mansel describes their colourful, contradictory history, from the beginning of the French alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century to their decline in the mid twentieth century. Smyrna was burnt; Alexandria Egyptianised; Beirut lacerated by civil war. Levant is the first history in English of these cities in the modern age. . Levant is also a challenge from history. It is about ourselves; it shows how Muslims, Christians and Jews live together in cities. Levantine compromises, putting deals befor ideals, pragmatism before ideology, made these cities work, until states reclaimed them for nationalism. Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut have a message for today. The new Levantine cities of the twenty-first century, with comparable mixes of races and religions, are London, Paris and New York.

About the Author :
Philip Mansel is a historian of France and the Ottoman Empire. He has written histories of Constantinople and nineteenth-century Paris, as well as biographies of Louis XVIII and the Prince de Ligne. Six of his books have been translated into French. He writes for the Art Newspaper, the Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator. While writing Levant, he lived in Beirut and Istanbul. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and member of the committee of the Chateau de Versailles research centre. In 2012 Philip Mansel was awarded the prestigious London Library Life in Literature Award in recognition of the quality of both his writing and his scholarship. www.philipmansel.com

Review :
Praise for Constantinople: City of the World's Desire - 'An endless treasure chest of fascinating facts and extraordinary revelations ... a cultural and social history as much as a political and military one, Mansel's oustandingly researched portrait of this intriguing city and its exotic denizens is gripping' Robert Carver, Scotsman 'Marvellous ... the experience of the whole city grows with the book ... you always feel close to the beat of Constantinople's raffish and mysterious heart' Michael Ratcliffe, Observer 'The victory, the defeat, the magnificene, the squalor, the cruelty and the tolerance of the Ottoman years are all recorded there. Constantinople is one of those cities to which I always long to return, and the longing grows on every page' Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph