Synopsis
This brief but comprehensive backgrounder meets the demand for a full yet accessible historical long view of Iraq as it relates to the 2003 American invasion. William R. Polk, a Middle East scholar who has taught at Harvard and the University of Chicago, has also been associated with the State Department. He has prepared what amounts to five briefing papers on ancient, modern, and contemporary Iraq (or "American Iraq," an era he sees as beginning in 1990). Iraq comes across as a civilization bound up in its history, where long-ago events still inform the more recent. In his final chapter, Polk assesses the prospects for change and democracy in the new Iraq, noting: "Over its long history, the one group that has seldom 'owned' Iraq was its people." He assesses the record of both the Coalition and the interim government, pointing to troubling signs and missteps, and discussing frankly just why oil is and will always be an enduring American interest. The reader comes away from Polk's book with a better understanding of Iraq and the Middle East, and of why Iraq's interests and future are so closely linked to those of America.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2005-04-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 222 pages | | Height: | 8.3 in | | Width: | 5.8 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 13.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
Iraq will continue to be a major issue and involvement for the United States into the foreseeable future says William R. Polk, former member of the State Department's Policy Planning Council and professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of Chicago. Iraq sits on the world's largest supply of oil, and with the world's energy requirements continuously rising, Iraq will play an ongoing role in the global economy and the political environment throughout the Gulf region and the Middle East. Polk's concise, authoritative overview of Iraq's history shows how the pattern of outside intervention was established first by the Ottoman Turks and the Persian Safavids and later by England, Russia, and Germany. After World War I came British rule, followed by a brief and uneasy period of independence that sparked Iraqi nationalism, leading Saddam Husain to power with American military and financial aid and covert CIA involvement. The Iraq-Iran War and the invasion of Kuwait was followed by the Gulf War, the sanctions period, and the Bush administration's decision to invade. Finally, there is the American occupation and the challenges, opportunities, and options that Iraqis and Americans face now and in the future.
Industry Reviews
"[A] tightly crafted book....In one of the clearest prescriptions for success in Iraq, Polk calls for "American political courage" in allowing Iraqis to re-establish neighborhood associations to run social affairs and provide security."
Publishers Weekly (03/21/2005)
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