Lebanon achieved its independence in 1943, after years of French rule under a League of Nations Mandate that dated back to the First World War. The country, formerly part of Syria, embraced a wide variety of religious and ethnic groupings, all of which proved mutually antagonistic. Samuel M Katz and Lee E Russell examine the conflicts in Lebanon from 1982-84 in a volume containing a wealth of contemporary photographs and eight full page colour plates by Ron Volstad detailing uniforms [accompanied by 11 pages of commentaries].