Lives darkened by calamity :enduring the famine of World War I in Lebanon and Western Syria -

Abstract

Because the famine of World War I marked the cusp of the Ottoman and French eras of rule in Lebanon and Syria, the crisis has been regarded in the historiography as a pivotal event – but one which primarily derives its significance from its context in national history. The unintended consequence of this outlook has been the diminution of the period of the crisis as a distinct historical unit, reducing its value to that of a stepping stone between eras. However, the complexity of life in the famine period suggests that the greater historical value of the famine lies not in what caused it or came after, but in the systemic dynamics of the famine itself as it evolved over the course of the crisis from 1915 to 1918. Drawing from meteorological and medical reports, price lists, diaries, correspondence, relief documents and memoirs, this research explores how it was to live during the famine and how the aberrant conditions of the period fed back into the crisis to determine both how it developed and how individuals responded to it to survive. Over time, the high prices and social disintegration prompted transformations in individuals and society, increasing risk for many of the most vulnerable and compelling people to alter their behaviors and attitudes in order to cope with a world that had been redefined by the experience of the famine. Whereas many previous investigations of this topic have dwelled on death and suffering, the focus of this work is life: in spite of the appalling death tolls across the region during the famine, the dominant experience of the period was survival and endurance, not death and resignation. This dissertation seeks to reclaim these forgotten elements of life in the calamity that have so often been overshadowed by the horrors of the crisis.