The other Iraq
Subtitle: pluralism and culture in Hashemite Iraq
By: Orit Bashkin.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 364
ISBN-13: 9780804759922
Subjects: Pluralism (Social sciences) -- Iraq -- History -- 20th century; Intellectuals -- Iraq -- History -- 20th century; Nationalism -- Iraq -- History -- 20th century; Iraq -- History -- Hashemite Kingdom, 1921-1958; Iraq -- Ethnic relations; Iraq -- Intellectual life -- 20th century
Description: "The Other Iraq challenges the notion that Iraq has always been a totalitarian, artificial state, torn by sectarian violence. Chronicling the rise of the Iraqi public sphere from 1921 to 1958, this enlightening work reveals that the Iraqi intellectual field was always more democratic and pluralistic than historians have tended to believe.

Orit Bashkin demonstrates how Sunni, Shi'i, and Kurdish intellectuals effectively created hyphenated Iraqi identities, connoting pride in their individual heritages while simultaneously appropriating and integrating ideas and narratives of Arab and Iraqi nationalism. Illustrating three developmental stages of Iraqi intellectual history, she follows Iraqi intellectuals' changing roles, from agents of democracy, to specialists who analyze the population, to deeply entrenched members of society committed to change. Based on previously unexplored material, this eye-opening work has significant contemporary implications."--pub. desc.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Modest hopes : Iraqi intellectuals in the early 1920s; title: Protecting pluralism, 1931-1945; title: Renaissance and revolution, 1945-1958; title: The production of Pan-Arabism(s) : narratives of Iraqi-Arab nationalism; title: Strangers in our midst : Iraq's others; title: The rural nation : intellectuals, tribesmen, and peasants; title: Educating the nation : modes and theories of discipline.