Title: A history of Iraq /
Authors: Tripp, Charles.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press,
Year: 2002
Subjects: Iraq History; Iraq Politics and government; Ṣaddām (Iraq)
Abstract: In response to current events, Charles Tripp has updated his incisive book A History of Iraq to include developments as recent as mid-2002. Since its establishment by the British in the 1920s, Iraq has witnessed the rise and fall of successive authoritarian regimes, competing ruthlessly for power and resources. This struggle culminated in the dictatorship of Saddam Husain, who still maintains his grip over a fragmented and increasingly isolated society. Tripp's book traces Iraq's political history from its nineteenth-century roots in the Ottoman empire, to the development of the state, its transformation from monarchy to republic and the rise of the Ba'th party and the ascendancy and current rule of Saddam Husain. This is a story of social conflict, of power struggles between rival clans, of hostility and wars with neighboring states, as well as of their aftermath, and Iraq's deteriorating relations with the West. A History of Iraq offers incisive analysis of the making of a modern state and how it creates its own distinctive politics. Charles Tripp is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the co-author of Iran-Saudi Arabia Relations and Regional Order (Oxford, 1997) and Iran and Iraq at War (Westview, 1998).
Contents: 1. The Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul : Power in the three provinces ; The Ottoman 'reconquest' of the three provinces ; Sultan Abdulhamid II and the Young Turks ; The Committee of Union and Progress and its opponents -- 2. The British Mandate : British occupation and reactions ; The Iraqi revolt of 1920 ; The institutional definition of the state ; Mandate and treaty ; The Mosul question: territory and oil ; Different communities, different purposes, different histories ; Emerging trends in politics and the economy -- 3. The Hashemite monarchy I932-41 : Communal identities and tribunal unrest ; Social criticism and political conspiracy ; The coup d'état of 1936 ; Military politics: pan-Arabism and army conspiracies ; Iraq in the Second World War ; The coup d'état of 1941 and the British military occupation --^