Franck Salameh achieves his goal of revealing “another” version of the Middle East with his book. Language, Memory, and Identity in the Middle East: The Case for Lebanon (Lexington Books, 2010). This book looks at the use of language and memory as a means of understanding culture. It also asks questions about how assumptions about the use of Arabic inform western beliefs about the Middle East. Salameh presents a fascinating look at the way that culture is delimitated in the Middle East, and the history associated with the many identities persons in the region assign to themselves. This book is as much about history as it is an ethnological report on Lebanon and the uniqueness of this country. There are intriguing glimpses into the vibrant past of the Mediterranean region that help the reader to build a more assorted view of how the Middle East developed to express the diversity it does today. Meticulously researched and intriguingly written, Language, Memory, and Identity in the Middle East: The Case for Lebanon invites the reader voraciously continue to turn the pages in expedition of a world rarely presented to the western audience.

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