When the Lebanon emerged from its fifteen year civil war in 1990, it had essentially adopted a new constitutional framework in the form of the Taif Accords and a series of ensuing amnesty laws. Instead of representing relief and hope at the end of conflict, however, Ta'if presented the Lebanese with a mechanism that would allow them to largely ignore the traumas of their past and in doing so offer the nation a path around any active transitional justice programs. Instead of an "official" history of the war presented by the state, the state imposed a nationwide amnesia regarding the crimes committed and endured by all facets of Lebanese society that has already lasted over two decades. Many Lebanese elites have pushed this narrative of forgetfulness, ignoring the gravity of history itself, to say nothing of the wartime memories that contribute to the renewed bouts of violence. Still other politicians spin those memories to their advantage. By waxing prophetic on this situation, the civil war, or any perceived outcome of the conflict in general, they endear themselves to the different governing blocs or appease the interests of the actor(s) du jour who typically offer “unique” interpretations of wartime and postwar Lebanon. In 2003 a group of friends decided it was high time to respond actively to the decomposition that had continued to chip away at what remained of Lebanon’s national core since the “official” end of the war and established UMAM Documentation and Research (UMAM D&R), a private archive whose core philosophy derives from the general belief that acknowledging Lebanon’s violent past is fundamental to enabling Lebanon to extricate itself from a persistent deadlock. Unlike most independent archives, UMAM D&R does not stand "against the monumental history of the state" as the state itself has yet to adopt an official or authoritative representation of the events in Lebanon's recent past through either the creation of a national history curriculum or the opening of a national library or archive for public use. Rather, UMAM D&R's work stands against the act of forgetting history and the indoctrination of citizens with personal histories of war as communal history. Instead of undermining state sponsored "strategies of control," the archive must compete with scores of "disciplinary mechanisms" used by Lebanon's various elites to control their community. In essence, UMAM D&R is struggling against the desiccation of Lebanon caused, in part, by a lack of history.