Transformation: Economic, Social, Intellectual

Abstract

Changes in the varied aspects of Lebanese life, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to which Lebanese abroad contributed, were both radical and lasting. They were mainly due to the impact of the West and resulted in transforming a medieval society to a modernist one. Proximity to the sea, preponderance of the Christian element and a tradition of Western orientation made the people especially receptive to the new stimuli. A simple but dynamic discovery was made that man could alter his life by altering his state of mind. Progress, it was realized, was change from a state considered imperfect to one seemingly better. It presupposes belief in unrealized possibilities and involves self-criticism and desire for self-renewal. No such thorough changes had affected the Lebanese image since Crusading days.