AUB Press

In this small volume, former AUB President Harold Hoelscher elaborates on material previously presented in the course of three public lectures presented in January 1980 at the American University of Beirut. The author's thesis is that perceptions of technology as either “good" or “bad" are invalid. “Rejection of technology is the rejection of a tool to solve a problem"; yet whether that problem should be solved and by what means are totally different questions. Because of the general nature of Dr. Hoelscher's arguments, the book focuses on questions of continuing relevance about the role of technology in the modern world. ​

Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966) was the chief spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s. His books provided Islamic fundamentalism with its most important intellectual base. He was twice imprisoned by Nasser and was executed in 1966 for plotting against the government. He is often referred to as a martyr of the Islamic revival, and has had a major influence upon Islamic revivalism today, including the more militant groups such as Al-Jihad and the assassins of Anwar al-Sadat. The author presents an in-depth discussion of Qutb's life and writings, and focuses on the political and intellectual foundations of fundamentalism. He also analyzes Qutb's seven principles of the oneness of God (the tawhid). ​

​​Traditional food recipes based on ancestral knowledge are a cultural treasure and deserve preservation. Such is the case with the recipes contained in this book, the outcome of a project entitled “Wild Edible Plants: Promoting Dietary Diversity in Poor Communities of Lebanon," conducted by AUB's Department of Nutrition and Food Science; the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU) of AUB's Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences; and AUB's Nature Conservation Center (previously, IBSAR – the Initiative for Biodiversity Studies in Arid Regions). The project was funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC).