Romanticizing masculinity in Baathist Syria

Book excerpt: This book provides a novel analysis of the conceptual sources and ideological contours of the Assad regime. The book documents the Baathists’ fascination with Romanticized and 'muscular' ideas of the nation that emerged in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European social philosophy, and traces the implementation and impacts of these ideologies in the Syrian context. Emphasising the emergence of new forms of public gendered identity in Syria as a unifying feature of nationalism bound closely with the stability of the regime, the book shows how Romantic, muscular nationalism first rose to hegemony and then was shattered by its inherent violence, contradictions and inequalities. The final chapter closes by considering how a new vision of pluralism and civic belonging is today challenging the Romanticized Baathist ideal in contention for Syria’s future.