Ba?thism had an unmistakable impact on the making of the twentieth-century Middle East, in Syria and Iraq, most importantly, but also in less remarked upon ways beyond those two countries. There are notable weaknesses, though, in the various attempts that have been made to explain its beginnings, its influence, and its legacies or afterlives. This paper focuses on the thought and writings of Michel ?Aflaq, and is part of a broader research project to reconstruct an intellectual genealogy of Ba?thism in modern Syria. ?Aflaq, perhaps the most important intellectual resource for the Ba?th—at least during the early period, and despite subsequent controversy surrounding his role and his legacy—remains stubbornly “wrapped in obscurity,” to borrow an expression from the late social historian Hanna Batatu. Re-reading ?Aflaq in conversation and conflict with his contemporaries and his heirs, therefore, can enable not only a reinterpretation of Ba?thism in Syria—as both intellectual and political project—but also a reconsideration of Arab intellectual history during the mid-twentieth century, between nationalism and liberalism, the religious and the secular. This paper contributes to the collective effort of the panel to demonstrate how a new generation of scholarship is shedding different light on mid-twentieth century Arab intellectual culture, a period ripe for further study by historians, literature scholars, and cultural critics.