The Modern History of Iraq

Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, Inc, 1985. First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Good. xv, [1], 382, [2] pages. Some ink marks to text and in the margins noted. Front cover corner creased Includes 3 maps of Iraq, 19 tables, and 12 photographs. Also contains Preface, Note on Transliteration, The Legacy of the Past, The British Mandate, 1920-1932, An Era of Instability, 1932-1945; The Old Regime, 1946-1958; Economic and Social Change Under the Old Regime; The Revolution Begins: The Qasim Era, 1958-1963; The Revolution Begins: The Qasim Era, 1958-1963; The Arab Nationalists in Power, 1963-1968; The Ba'th in Power; Economic and Social Change Under Revolutionary Regimes; and The Iran-Iraq War. Also contains notes, bibliography, glossary, name index and subject index. This is the classic, baseline edition. It has been updated but this text is foundational and also represents the state of knowledge and interpretation at the start of the First Gulf War. The author has specialized in the study of Iraq for some years, and this is evident in the authority of the scholarship that is presented here. Utilizing primary and secondary sources in Arabic, and interviews with key personalities extending over some years, the analysis is sound and persuasive. This is an authoritative work that meets a great need: an up-to-date, readable, and comprehensive treatment of recent Iraqi history. Phebe Marr (born September 21, 1931) is a prominent American historian of modern Iraq with the Middle East Institute. She has been research professor at the National Defense University and a retired professor of history at University of Tennessee and Stanislaus State University in California. Written for lay readers and students of the Middle East, The Modern History of Iraq, places in historical perspective the multiple crises and upheavals that afflict contemporary Iraq. The book focuses on several important themes: the search for national identity in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state; the struggle to achieve economic development and modernity in a traditional society; and the political dynamics that have led to the current dire situation in Iraq. While much remains opaque about contemporary Iraq because of its closed political system, Marr has used published sources in Arabic and English, personal interviews, and frequent visits to Iraq to produce a remarkably lucid and readable account of the emergence of contemporary Iraq and the forces that have shaped it. The country today known as Iraq was a region of the Ottoman Empire until the partition of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century. It was made up of three provinces, called vilayets in the Ottoman Turkish language: Mosul Vilayet, Baghdad Vilayet, and Basra Vilayet. In April 1920 the British Mandate of Mesopotamia was created under the authority of the League of Nations. A British-backed monarchy joining these vilayets into one Kingdom was established in 1921 under Faisal I of Iraq. The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from the UK in 1932. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party from 1968 until 2003. In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, sparking a protracted war which would last for almost eight years, and end in a stalemate with devastating losses for both countries.