The aftermath of Lebanon's civil war has generated heated Beirut reconstruction debates dominated by references to collective memory, heritage, and nostalgia. The reconstruction drama, moreover, has become a key arena for post-war political struggles. What is the role of nostalgia in this conflict, and why has it become such a dominant rhetorical theme? Through interviews, archival research and ethnography, I will analyze competing nostalgic narratives produced by Beirut's political and business elites, secular intelligentsia, and refugees. By viewing nostalgia as a socially-produced phenomenon rather than a psychological state, I will trace the efforts of nostalgia-generating groups to control Beirut's urban space. In a concluding chapter, I will extend my analysis to Berlin and Sarajevo.