ABSTRACT
By the late forties and accumulation of social changes going back a century was beginning to undermine the structure of traditional society. The penetration of Western technology, ideology, and capitalism precipitated a growing social mobilization which undermined its social bases and created new social forces. The acceleration of social change was driven by a multi-pronged post-independence economic expansion. The establishment and expansion of new Syrian state also set off social changes. In Syria’s major urban centers the dominant classes were making themselves over, while two new classes were emerging between them and the urban mass. The agrarian-commercial upper class was developing a more dynamic industrial and agrarian entrepreneurial wing. One of the most politically consequential changes sweeping in the Syrian countryside was the social mobilization and politicization taking place among village youth, largely through their acquisition of education. These youth would become spokesmen for village grievances and a major force leading the spread of agrarian radicalism challenging the old order.
