A History of Iraq

by Charles Tripp

• ISBN13: 9780521878234
• ISBN10: 0521878233
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-18
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

To understand Iraq, Charles Tripp's history is the book to read. Since its first appearance in 2000, it has become a classic in the field of Middle East studies, read and admired by students, soldiers, policymakers and journalists. The book is now updated to include the recent American invasion, the fall and capture of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent descent into civil strife. What is clear is that much that has happened since 2003 was foreshadowed in the account found in this book. Tripp's thesis is that the history of Iraq throughout the twentieth-century has made it what it is today, but also provides alternative futures. Unless this is properly understood, many of the themes explored in this book - patron-client relations, organized violence, sectarian, ethnic and tribal difference - will continue to exert a hold over the future of Iraq as they did over its past.

Author Biography

Charles Tripp is Professor of Politics in the Middle East at the School or Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. x
Chronology	p. xii
Glossary	p. xx
List of abbreviations	p. xxii
Iraq: principal towns	p. xxiv
Basra, Kuwait and the Shatt al-'Arab	p. xxv
Iraq and the Middle East	p. xxvi
Kurdish Iraq	p. xxvii
Introduction	p. 1
The Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul	p. 8
Power in the three provinces	p. 8
The Ottoman 'reconquest' of the three provinces	p. 13
Sultan Abdulhamid II and the Young Turks	p. 19
The Committee of Union and Progress and its opponents	p. 23
The British Mandate	p. 30
British occupation and reactions	p. 31
The Iraqi revolt of 1920	p. 39
The institutional definition of the state	p. 44
Mandate and treaty	p. 51
The Mosul question: territory and oil	p. 57
Different communities, different purposes, different histories	p. 59
Emerging trends in politics and the economy	p. 63
The Hashemite monarchy 1932-41	p. 75
Communal identities and tribal unrest	p. 77
Social criticism and political conspiracy	p. 82
The coup d'etat of 1936	p. 86
Military politics: pan-Arabism and army conspiracies	p. 91
Iraq in the Second World War	p. 97
The coup d'etat of 1941 and the British military occupation	p. 100
The Hashemite monarchy 1941-58	p. 105
Re-establishing the regime	p. 107
Thwarted liberalisation	p. 111
Foreign policies: Arab issues, Palestine and the Portsmouth Treaty	p. 115
Economic development and party politics	p. 123
Nuri al-Sa'id: the politics of reform and repression	p. 127
Nuri al-Sa'id: foreign initiatives and domestic challenges	p. 134
The coup d'etat of 1958	p. 139
The republic 1958-68	p. 143
'Abd al-Karim Qasim: dictatorship and disillusion	p. 144
Iraqi foreign policy under Qasim	p. 157
The politics of conspiracy and the coup d'etat of February 1963	p. 161
Ba'thist control and loss of control in 1963	p. 164
'Abd al-Salam 'Arif: Nasserist aspirations and Iraqi realities	p. 169
Patrimonialism and the rule of the clan	p. 175
'Abd al-Rahman 'Arif: a weakening hold on power	p. 178
The Ba'th and the rule of Saddam Husain 1968-2003	p. 186
Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and the consolidation of power	p. 187
Kurdish and Shi'i challenges and relations with Iran	p. 192
Economic patronage, political control and foreign policy alignments	p. 197
War in Kurdistan	p. 203
Oil revenues, foreign policies and the rise of Saddam Husain	p. 206
Saddam Hussin's presidency and the war with Iran in 1980	p. 215
Defending the regime and Iraq after 1982	p. 226
A war of attrition 1984-8	p. 230
Resistance amongst the Kurds and the Shi'a	p. 234
The aftermath of war and the invasion of Kuwait 1988-90	p. 239
The war for Kuwait and the uprisings of 1991	p. 244
Iraq under sanctions and the long aftermath of the Gulf war	p. 250
Kurdish autonomy and Kurdish politics	p. 254
The 'shadow state' in Iraq	p. 259
War and the fall of Saddam Husain	p. 267
The American occupation and the parliamentary republic	p. 277
The rule of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)	p. 278
New institutions and old politics	p. 292
Insurgency, sectarianism and the spectre of civil war	p. 303
Conclusion	p. 317
Notes	p. 323
Bibliography	p. 336
Further reading and research	p. 344
Index	p. 349
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