Understanding Iraq

The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation

William R. Polk

• Publisher: Harper
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780060764692
• eBook ISBN: 9780061835483
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Central Asian History
• Index: History

The destinies of Iraq and America will be entwined for the foreseeable future, due to U.S. incursion -- the latest in a long history of violent outside interventions. A country located directly over the world's largest supply of crude oil, Iraq will continue to play an essential role in global economics and in Middle Eastern politics for many decades. Therefore, it is vitally important that Westerners have a clear understanding of this volatile, enigmatic land, its turbulent past and possibilities for the future.

In Understanding Iraq, noted Middle East authority William R. Polk presents the dramatic story of the "Land of Two Rivers" in one concise volume. This fascinating, in-depth study presents a comprehensive history of the events that shaped modern Iraq, while offering well-reasoned judgments on what we can expect there in years to come.

William R. Polk is the author of The U.S. and the Arab World and The Elusive Peace. He taught at Harvard and was professor of history at the University of Chicago. In 1961 he was a member of the Policy Planning Council of the State Department. Polk was past president of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs. He has written articles on Iraq and the Middle East for Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, the Chicago Sun Times and the New York Review of Books.

"It is a well-written and important book with considerable relevance to the survival of Western democracy." — Said Aburish, author of Saddam Hussein

INDEX

Abadi, Haider al-

Abbasid caliphate

Abdul-Ilah, Prince

Abu Bakr

Abu Ghuraib

Afghanistan

agriculture

in mandate era

Akkadians

Al Bu Nasir

Alexander III (the Great), King of Macedonia

Algeria

Al Hamad, Abdul Latif

Ali

al-Jazeera

Allawi, Iyad al-

al-Majid clan

al-Qaida

Amnesty International

Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO),

Arab-Israeli War of 1948-49

Arab-Israeli War of 1967

Arab League

Arab Revolt

Arabs:

and concept of nation

and identity

language of

Arif, Abdur-Rahman

Arif, Abdus-Salam

Assyrians

modern

Aziz, Tariq

Baath Party

rule of

Babylonia

Baghdad

Mongol conquest of

Baghdad Pact

Baker, James

Bakr, Hasan al-

Barmakid family

Barzani, Masud

Barzani, Mustafa

Batiste, John

Bedouins

Benn, Tony

Berger, Samuel

bin Ladin, Usama

biological and chemical weapons

Blackwater USA

Blair, Tony

Blix, Hans

Brahimi, Lakhtar

Brandt, Willy

Bremer, L. Paul, III

British Dromedary Post

British Petroleum (BP)

Buchan, John

Burke, Edmund

Bush, George H. W.

administration of

alleged assassination attempt on

Bush, George W.

administration of

Buyid, Shiis

Byzantine Empire

Cairo Conference of 1921

Call (Prayer) movement

Cannistraro, Vincent

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Chalabi, Ahmad

Cheney, Dick

China

Christians, Christianity

Churchill, Winston

clans

Clarke, Victoria

Clinton, Bill

administration of

Communist Party, Iraqi

Congress, U.S.

“Constitution of Medina,”

coup of

Cox, Percy

Curzon, Lord

Cyrus II, King of Persia

Darius III, King of Persia

Defense Department, U.S.

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

de Gaulle, Charles

Democratic Party, Kurdish, (KDP)

Desert Fox, Operation

Duelfer, Charles

Dulles, John Foster

East Timor

Economist Magazine

education

Egypt

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

Fahd, King of Saudi Arabia

Faisal I, King of Iraq

Feith, Douglas

Fertile Crescent

Food for Oil ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Maps
• Preface
• A Note on Words and Spellings
• Introduction
• One: Ancient Iraq
• Two: Islamic Iraq
• Three: British Iraq
• Four: Revolutionary Iraq
• Five: American Iraq
• Six: Whose Iraq?
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• About The Author
• Also By William R. Polk
• Copyright
• About the Publisher