Another review of Quinn, In Search of the Phoenicians

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Troubled and troublesome. Identities in the Middle East continue to haunt and raise questions—two books reviewed (Thomas Schellen and Riad Al-Khouri, ExecutivE).

In Search of the Phoenicians by Josephine Quinn Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2018 Hardcover, 360 pages

The book “In Search of the Phoenicians” by Josephine Quinn opens—not counting her introduction—with a 1946 quote by then freshly minted Member of the Lebanese Parliament, Kamal Jumblatt. The quote bubbles with fervor for the Lebanese “ancient young country” and, as Quinn points out, not only connects the nation of Lebanon with the Phoenicians through history and geography but passionately portrays the Phoenicians as being responsible for the idea of the nation itself. In Jumblatt’s phrasing, optimism for Lebanon is rooted via backward projection in the ancient history of the Phoenician coast which saw “the emergence of the first civic state.”

This is a very thoughtful review and I encourage you to read it. The article also reviews a new book of essays dedicated to Simon Wiesenthal.

Earlier reviews (etc.) of Professor Quinn's book are here and links.

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