Cover -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF TABLES -- PREFACE -- PART I: THE PEASANTS' SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITIONS -- CHAPTER 1 The Role of Demographics -- CHAPTER 2 Differentiations -- The "Peasant-gardeners" and the "Agricultural Peasants" -- The Pacific Peasants and the Peasants of Warrior Origin -- The "Orthodox" and the "Heterodox" Peasants -- The Clanless and Clan-linked Peasants -- The Landed and Landless Peasants, the Traditional Urban Landowners, and the Modern Mustathmirs -- CHAPTER 3 Living Conditions -- The Distribution of Agricultural Income prior to and since the Restructuring of Agrarian Relations -- The Lessening Cost of Agricultural Credit -- The Reduced Tax Burden -- The Rapid Electrification of the Countryside -- The Spread of Safe Water Networks -- The Expansion of Rural Health Care -- The Development of the Means of Communication and Conveyance -- The Intensification of the State's Educational Efforts -- CHAPTER 4 Economic Efficiency -- Land Use -- The Agricultural Growth Trends and Related Causal Factors -- Possible Lines of Future Progress -- PART II: THE PRE-BA'TH PATTERNS OF PEASANT CONSCIOUSNESS, ORGANIZATION, AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOR -- CHAPTER 5 Introduction: Portraits of Peasants by Ibn Khaldūn, Balzac, Trotsky, Father Ayrout, and J. C. Scott, and Their Relevance -- CHAPTER 6 The First Peasant Organizations or the Corporations of Peasant-gardeners from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century -- CHAPTER 7 Sūfism among the Peasants: A Source of Political Quietism? -- CHAPTER 8 The Proneness in Ottoman and Mandate Times of the Peasant Mountaineers to Rebellion and of the Peasants of the Open Plains to Indirect Methods of Defense -- CHAPTER 9 The Communists and the Peasants -- CHAPTER 10 The Arab Socialists, or the First Agrarian Party in Syria's History -- PART III: THE RURAL AND PEASANT ASPECTS OF BA'THISM.

CHAPTER 11 The Old Ba'th and the Political Rearing of a Rural Intelligentsia -- CHAPTER 12 The "Transitional" Ba'th or the Ba'th of the 1960s, the Rise of the Lesser Rural or Village Notability, and the Ruralization of the Army, the Party, and, to Some Degree, the State Bureaucracy -- The Social Origins of the Members of the Military Committee -- The Causal Factors behind the Ascent of the Lesser Rural or Village Notability -- The Stepped-up Ruralization of the Armed Forces -- Reasons for the Paramount Influence of the 'Alawī Officers -- The Rural Penetration of the State Bureaucracy -- The Enhanced Rural Coloring of the Ba'th Party -- The Agrarian Policies of the 1960s and Their Social Meaning -- The Downfall of the Mainstream Ba'thists of the 1960s and Its Causes -- CHAPTER 13 The Post-1970 Asad-molded, Career-oriented Ba'th -- Qāa'id-ul-Masīrah -- The General Characteristics and Social Composition of the New Ba'th -- The Reasons Why the Proportion of Peasants in the Party Declined in the 1980s and Rose Subsequently -- PART IV: HĀFIZ AL-ASAD, OR SYRIA'S FIRST RULER OF PEASANT EXTRACTION -- CHAPTER 14 Asad's Background, Early Education, Party Apprenticeship, and First Political Battle -- CHAPTER 15 Asad's Military Career and Military Qualifications, or the Inferences as to His Generalship Deducible from His Performance in the 1967 and 1973 Wars and during Israel's Invasion of Lebanon -- CHAPTER 16 The Varied Aspects of Power in Asad's State -- A Few Preliminary General Observations on "Democratic" Rhetoric and the Realities of Life -- Asad's Public and Private Views of the Power of Men in the Mass and Their Aptitude for Politics -- The Four Levels of Asad's Power Structure and Their Basic Characteristics -- CHAPTER 17 Focusing for a While on the More Subtle Forms of Power.

CHAPTER 18 The Organization of Power at the Second Tier of Asad's Polity and Its Partaking, among Other Features, of a Basic Trait of Peasant Life -- The Elemental Instinct for Family and Clan and Its Impact -- The Lesser Rural Notability and the Inner Core of the Regime's Leadership -- Is Asad's Regime Sectarian? -- The Abuse of Authority in High Places and Its Prime Symbol -- The "Succession Crisis" -- New Tensions -- A Word on the Security and Intelligence Networks and Their Key Figures -- CHAPTER 19 A Glance at the Third Level of Power or at the Composition of the Upper Elite of the Ba'th Party (1970-1997) -- CHAPTER 20 Shifting the Focus to the Fourth Level of Power, or an Analysis, by Way of Illustration, of the Role of the Peasants' General Union, the Party's Principal Ancillary Mass Organization -- CHAPTER 21 A Closer View of the Summit of Power, or Asad's Personality as a Factor in the Maintenance of His Rule and the Thwarting of His Opponents -- CHAPTER 22 Of the Manner in Which Asad Dealt with the Muslim Brethren and their Militants, and the Light It Throws on the Methods by Which He Holds Sway -- Coping with the Muslim Brethren by Propitiating the 'Ulamā' and How the 'Ulamā' Responded -- Benefiting from the Divisions within the Brotherhood -- Encouraging the Quietism of the Brotherhood's "Damascus Faction"? -- Facing the Militants' Violent Blows and Their Large-scale Armed Rebellions, or the Gravest Internal Challenge to His Regime -- Using Force at First Guardedly and Differentiating between the Militants, Leaving Open a Line of Retreat for "the Misled" among Them -- Feeling out the Country's Temper -- Altering the Sectarian Composition of the Ba'th Command and Placing in High-Profile Posts More Sunnīs from Families of High Religious Status.

Linking the Irreconcilable Militants to the C.I.A. and Taking the Problem by the Horns and Going the Limit -- Frustrating the Muslim Brethren in Exile -- More Firmly in the Saddle than Ever -- CHAPTER 23 Asad's Main Concepts at the Level of Regional Politics: Ends or Instruments? -- Asad and Pan-Arabism -- Asad and the Iraq-Iran War -- The Conflict with Israel and the Concept of Strategic Parity -- CHAPTER 24 An In-depth Study of Asad's Relations with Fath and the P.L.O. from 1966 to 1997 and the Light It Sheds on His Aims and Techniques -- The First Spell of Fath-Ba'th Cooperation -- "The Affair of Yūusuf 'Urābī" -- From the 1967 Arab Defeat to the Jordanian Crisis of 1970-1971 -- The Twists and Turns prior to and during the 1975-1976 Lebanese Civil Conflict and the Slide from Latent Enmity into Open War -- An Interlude of Apparent Harmony -- The 1982 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon and the Virtual Abandonment of the Palestinian Resistance to Its Fate -- The Rupture of Relations and the Battle of Tripoli -- 'Arafāt Springs Surprises -- The 'Arafāat-King Husayn 1985 Initiative -- The Reemergence of Fath in Lebanon's Military Equation, the Alleged "Assurances" to Israel, and the "War of the Camps" of 1985-1988 -- The Intifādah, the Tenuous 1988 Agreement, and the Continued Divergence of Policies -- Turning a New Page? -- 'Arafāt Goes His Own Way -- Pulling Together Again -- Some Conclusions -- CHAPTER 25 Epilogue -- APPENDIX -- Members of the Syrian Ba'th Party (Regional) Commands, 1963-1997 -- NOTES -- SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX I: SUBJECTS -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- W -- Y -- INDEX II: PERSONAL NAMES -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z -- INDEX III: NAMES OF FAMILIES AND TRIBES.