A History of Iraq

"A History of Iraq" is an excellent, readable narrative covering Iraq's modern period from its creation out of the Ottoman Empire through today.The first chapter provides background on the Ottoman provinces that make up today's Iraq and then it goes on to cover six more modern historical periods: The British Mandate; The Hashemite Monarchy, 1932-41; The Hashemite Monarchy, 1941-58; The Republic, 1958-68; The Ba'th and the Rule of Saddam Husain, 1968-2003; and The American Occupation and the Parliamentary Republic.Compared to other books on Iraq published today, Tripp merely provides a historical narrative without political histrionics or polemics. Yet, still, in the end you feel you have a better understanding of the "why" of Saddam Husain, and "why" Iraq is where it is today with the potential of parliamentary democracy. Throughout these historical periods, there's one constant regardless of the leadership and type government; that is the power of patronage and its use by the nation's leaders to get and maintain control of power.Yet, it's not as simple as it would seem given the Shi'a vs. Sunni vs. Arab vs. Persian vs. Kurd dynamic. It makes for a much more complicated environment than exists in other Islamic countries where one religious group or ethnicity tends to dominate...if anything, you're struck by the need for Iraq's leadership to compromise with all major groups -- and if it doesn't, the other groups can, will, and have created violent political instability throughout Iraq's modern history. Generalizations about Iraq cannot be made without significant qualifiers and caveats.A definite must read for anyone who wants to understand Iraq while avoiding the tremendous political bias that tends to dominate most books on Iraq today.

This book neutrally presents a recent history of Iraq in details. As a novice of the Middle East, I tremendously enjoyed this book and found it fascinating (although I was overwhelmed with the many different names in the book from time to time and it took me more than three months to finish).For the last few centuries, Iraq has not evolved much and is still stuck in the past. It is a country built on patronage networks. Those who have been in power constantly persecute and eliminate those opposition who are deemed threatening.It is in stark contrast with Western democratic societies where the freedom of speech is treasured and opposing voices will not be silenced.

Mr. Tripp’s account to the history of Iraq is captivating and demonstrates deep insights to the complex dynamics within Iraq.

...this is a good place to start. Interesting, insigthful and relatively short on Iraq history (ap. 300 pages with photos). Focus on politics and the way different groups and actors inside and outside Iraq have used the Iraqi state to advance their interst and how other groups have tried to avoid or to fight the powers of the same state. Three factors play out in this dark neverending drama: patrimonialism, oil and violence.

Interesting Book as it helps to understand parts of Modern Iraq.

Do you want a better understanding of our current relationship with Iraq? This book does a great job of explaining why Iraq is such a volatile country, and why we have such a strained relationship. It's so good that I told my teen to share it with her high school history teacher when they were studying the Middle East.

I was born in Iraq and I am very well related to the history of Iraq. I do some researches about the country and had missed few bits of information which I happily found in the book.

I honestly bought this book to appear sophisticated but it's 5 stars at doing that. It sits on my shelf and if anybody asks about it I just say, yeah, they had it rough, and they totally think I read the thing.

Every member of parliament should be made to read this book before they are allowed to vote on Middle Eastern issues. It also explains what happens when foreign powers destabilize countries by introducing alien concepts. I am not talkin about the recent invasion but how the country was doomed to instability as a result of its creation in the 1920's and the example the English gave in ruling its colonies. The British Empire was truly the engine to create instability globally for the next century. And the sad facts are that even today the politicians think we can go into foreign counties and create models of little Britain.

Fantastic book, excellently written.

i ordered this book i never received it

Very good book