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entrepot” (p. 135), and the 1973 amendments to the Law of Money and Credit that transformed the Central Bank into a “lender of first rather than last resort” (p. 168). There are some areas in which Safieddine could have further elaborated his arguments. For example, he astutely describes the justifications for and interests driving the banking secrecy legislation but gives no indication of what if any opposition and debate it encountered. Furthermore, Safieddine points to the ABL’s early reports prioritizing “collective advocacy against perceived threats to the sector, both external (state regulation) and internal (union activism)” (p. 89). More could have been said here about the role of labor, and in particular the Syndicate of Bank Employees’ prominent role in the 1950s. Such omissions, however, do not detract from the overall argument nor the profound insights the book advances. Banking on the State is an innovative and groundbreaking contribution to the historiography of Lebanon. It is a treasure for researchers and students interested in the political, social, or economic history of Lebanon as well as financial history and post-colonial state building more broadly. Safieddine puts Lebanon into conversation with regional and global debates on post-World War II history, political economy of development, and the history of economic thought. It will be required reading for historians and other scholars of Lebanon and the Middle East.