Reviving Phoenicia follows the social, intellectual and political development of the Phoenician myth of origin in Lebanon from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the 20th. Asher Kaufman demonstrates the role played by the lay, liberal Syrian-Lebanese who resided in Beirut, Alexandria and America towards the end of the 19th century in the birth and dissemination of this myth. Kaufman investigates the crucial place Phoenicianism occupied in the formation of Greater Lebanon in 1920. He also explores the way the Jesuit Order and the French authorities propagated this myth during the mandate years. The book also analyzes literary writings of different Lebanese who advocated this myth, and of others who opposed it.

Introduction * Who Were the Phoenicians? * National Identities in the Arab Middle East * The French Colonial Idea * First Buds: 1860-1918 * France in the Levant * The Jesuits in Syria 1831-1918 * Geschichtebild: The Maronite Clergy * Geschichtebild: Lay Syrian Intellectuals * Before and After the War * The Syro-Lebanese Community in Egypt * Paris 1913-1919 * Phoenicianism in America: 1900-1920 * Beirut 1919: Charles Corm and La Revue Phenicienne *The Years of the Mandate * The French Mandate and the Lebanese Educational System * Universite Saint Joseph and its Graduates * Archaeology, Museum and Phoenicianism * The Period 1936-1937: A Case Study of Phoenicianism and its Adversaries * Three Phoenician Currents * Charles Corm: The Inspired Francophone Poet * Michel China and the Merchant Republic of Lebanon * Sa'id 'Aql, Arabophones and Phoenicianism * The Adversaries * Arab Muslims: Rashid and Shakib Arslan * Secular Pan-Arabs: Qonstantine Zurayq * Edmond Rabbath * Amin al-Rihani * The Syrian Social Nationalist Party: Antun Sa'adeh * Muslim Lebanese: Muhammad Jamil Bayhum * After Independence and Beyond