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Peasants into Syrians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2009

Kevin W. Martin*
Affiliation:
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.; e-mail: [email protected]

Extract

Like much of the “developing world,” Syria experienced urban population growth at historically unprecedented rates in the 1950s. Such rapid urbanization, like all transformative historical phenomena, animates (and, to a certain extent, reifies) a host of dreams and anxieties in those who experience it. To get an inkling of how “Syrians”—as individuals, groups, or representatives of institutions—felt about these changes, one has to look beyond the ubiquitous and frequent pronouncements of intellectuals and government officials extolling the virtues of modernity and the liberating effects of science and technology.

Type
Quick Studies
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

NOTES

1 For example, the population of Damascus increased by 47.6 percent between 1950 and 1960. Davis, Kingsley, World Urbanization 1950–1970, Vol. 1: Basic Data for Cities, Countries, and Regions (Berkeley, Calif.: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1969), 74, 154, 201Google Scholar.

2 Al-Jundi 220 (1 September 1955), 6. A similar panel appeared in Al-Jundi 223 (22 September 1955), 42.

3 Al-Anbaʾ 204–50 (21 July 1955), 2; Al-Jumhur 225 (27 September 1955), 14; Al-Raqib287 (29 September 1955), 18–21; and so forth.

4 See, for example, Al-Mukhtar 15 (8 July 1954), 3; Al-Nas 1 (18 July 1954), 2; Al-Mukhtar 19 (17 August 1954), 3; Al-Nas 31 (27 August 1954), 2; Al-Jamiʿa 36 (29 August 1954), 20–21; Al-Raqib 234 (4 September 1954), 28; Al-Jamiʿa (25 September 1955), 11; and so forth.

5 See, for example, Al-Anbaʾ 213–59 (5 August 1955), 1; Al-Anbaʾ 230–76 (26 August 1955), 1; Al-Jundi 221 (8 September 1955), 6–7; Al-Anbaʾ 242–88 (9 September 1955), 1; Al-Anbaʾ 246– 96 (15 September 1955), 1; Al-Jumhur 225 (27 September 1955), 19; Al-Raqib 287 (29 September 1955), 3; Al-Jundi 225 (6 October 1955), 4–5, 6; and so forth.