The Social and Economic Origins of Monarchy in Jordan endeavors to explain the resilience of the Hashemite monarchy in Jordan. In contrast to much of the existing literature, it seeks answers to the puzzle of the persistence of monarchical rule neither in the statecraft of the Hashemite monarchs, nor in the dynamics of their policies on the Palestinian issue. Instead, it focuses on the historical political economy of Trans-Jordan, locating the durability of Hashemite rule in the evolution of a monarchical socal pact that exchanged loyalty for economic security and bound the peasants and pastoralists of the East Bank to the throne. This Hashemite Compact originated in Mandatory times when the British colonialism built upon the seams of stateness laid down by Ottoman reform and harnessed the local order in South-eastern Syria to the imperial purpose. It was consolidated with the rapid expansion of the Arab Legion during the first decades of independence, allowing King Hussein to survive the high tide of Arab Radicalism and the challenge of Yaser Arafat"s PLO.