Product Description

The destinies of Iraq and America will be tightly intertwined into the foreseeable future due to the U.S. incursion into this complex, perplexing desert nation -- the latest in a long history of violent outside interventions. A country sitting atop 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 to come. Therefore, it is more important than ever for Westerners to have a clear understanding of the volatile, enigmatic "Land of Two Rivers" -- its turbulent past and its looming possibilities. In this acutely penetrating and endlessly fascinating study, acknowledged Middle East authority William R. Polk presents a comprehensive history of the tumultuous events that shaped modern Iraq, while offering well-reasoned judgments on what we can expect there in the years to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76702 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Released on: 2006-03-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this tightly crafted book, even the introductory note on words and spellings makes for a lesson in misunderstandings. Not only have occupying armies, officials and journalists not known the local language, Polk observes, but because Arabic is grounded in religious and historical texts, outsiders have missed the allusions that inform Iraqis' perceptions. Polk's history of ignorance reads like a portent. As the events in his history of Iraq from the Sumerians to the U.S. war of 2003 unfold in chronological order, they read like historical echoes of Iraq's present. The effect is haunting, and Polk's knack for understatement—he describes the recent American tactic of dismissing the Iraqi military but allowing them to keep their weapons as "maladroit"—only adds to the feeling of dread. But Polk, a scholar of the Middle East and former adviser to John F. Kennedy, stops just short of a fatalistic view of history. In one of the clearest prescriptions for success in Iraq yet to emerge, Polk calls for "American political courage" in allowing Iraqis to re-establish neighborhood associations to run social affairs and provide security. These associations not only inspire more genuine political participation than voting or constitutions, he says, but are a natural part of Iraqi tradition and culture. Unlike current American policy, which, he says, inadvertently invokes the post-WWI British occupation by focusing on rulers and symbols and neglecting the citizens, Polk calls attention to the reality of human relationships. With this war's death toll already at over 100,000 people, Polk notes that virtually every Iraqi has lost a parent, child, spouse, cousin, friend, colleague or neighbor. To achieve true peace in Iraq, the U.S., he argues, must acknowledge the brutalizing effect of those deaths and rebuild the trust that he thinks has been eroding for centuries. Agent, Sterling Lord Literistic.(On sale Apr. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Polk's distinguished 60-year career of diplomatic and academic intimacy with the Middle East grants him unique authority on his subject and puts this book head and shoulders above other analyses. Demystifying Iraq's deep roots with deep respect, Polk addresses each chapter of Iraq's perpetually turbulent history, from the first stirrings of human civilization to Islamic empire, British colonization, secular revolution, and, finally, the current American occupation. He emphasizes continuities amid crises. "One of the most striking features of the Iraqis," he reminds us, is that "even when they forget their past, they preserve or re-create it." Others forgetting the past may repeat it, he suggests, pointing to similarities between British and American intentions. The author's memory, however, remains sharp, and his personal proximity to several key figures both pre- and post-Saddam Hussein will occasionally drop readers' jaws. Critical of "neoconservative" strategy and steeped in a half-century of cold war-era pragmatism, Polk's suggestions for the future are as nuanced as his analysis of the past. Candid, concise, and highly recommended; make a definite effort to place this in the hands of your politically- and current-events-minded readers. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

William R. Polk taught Middle Eastern history and politics and Arabic at Harvard until 1961, when he became a member of the Policy Planning Council of the U.S. Department of State. In 1965, he became Professor of History at the University of Chicago, where he established the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His many books include The Birth of America and Understanding Iraq.

Customer Reviews

"Whose country is Iraq going to be?": A Central Question
William R. Polk's _Understanding Iraq_ (2005) makes a valuable contribution to the debate in the U.S. on the war in Iraq and the future steps to be taken. Polk's credentials are impressive, with degrees at Harvard and Cambridge, experience in the U.S. State Department, and direct, first-hand knowledge of Iraq and the Middle East as a whole. The quality of his work matches his credentials.

Throughout much of his book, he provides a broad history of Iraq from ancient times to the present. One of his main premises is that in the scope of history the Fertile Crescent, the Mesopotamian Valley, has been a region defined by internal and external conflict. He argues that repetitive cycles are evident in the broad history of the region (from the dawn of history) to the more recent history of Iraq as a nation-state the past century. He claims, for instance, that the Sumerian "lugals," literally "big man," of roughly 2800 BCE are the ancestors of figures like Saddam Hussein, the self-proclaimed "Hero President." Some of the long historical parallels Polk draws, while they interesting on one level, seem anthropologically universal in the evolution of society (and not specific to Iraq per se). Despite this, Polk's broad analysis is informative and important.

In my opinion, the strongest sections of the book are his discussions of British colonialism, the revolutionary period (after-independence), and the current period of the U.S. led Coalition Authority. Here, historical parallels are manifest. For example, Polk points out that the U.S. provisional constitution in 2004 mandating an interim provisional authority was nearly identical to the British government's mandate for occupation, delivered to the League of Nations in 1922. There are a number of other striking similarities in the recent history.

In these chapters, Polk gives a detailed picture of Sadam Hussein's cruelty, his miscalculations, and the Stalinistic totalitarianism under which Iraqis lived. Polk also acknowleges the social improvements in Iraq before Gulf War I in the health and human services due to an economy strengthened by oil sales. Polk's treatment of the U.S. involvement in Iraqi affairs in the Iran-Iraq War, particularly in arms and sales of chemical agents, and his description of the lead-up to the Gulf War I give a sense of the overall complexity of U.S. - Iraqi relations. He talks candidly about the effects of the trade sanctions on Iraqi civilians in the 1990s. From Polk's perspective, U.S. interests have been, at best, ambiguous and in their worst forms, devastating.

Polk's book ends with a four page analysis of what should be done in the present. He argues that the US should "choose" when it pulls out but also should make known to Iraqi citizens that the American presence is, by definition, temporary. He asserts that the UN should play an active role in the transition and that reconstruction monies should fund Iraqi corporations directly. These views are relevant to the present debate.

Polk's book is one work among many on Iraq, and it should be read in conversation with other accounts, written by Iraqis, civil servants, soldiers, military generals, and scholars of the Middle East. When considered in this context, Polk's work is quite valuable. What is remarkable about the number of books being written about Iraq is their closeness to the actual events unfolding each day. This puts an obvious constraint on authors. At the same time, these works make the newspaper reports clearer and offer a sense of which views are more valid than others.

BRIEF AND VALUABLE
UNDERSTANDING IRAQ is a brief, but extremely valuable, survey of Iraq's history from the prehistoric Ubaidians to the 2004 Iraq Provisional Authority. The book is divided into six chapters: Ancient Iraq, Islamic Iraq, British Iraq, American Iraq, and Whose Iraq?. The history is interlaced with William Polk's views on how current US policy interacts with that history. He is well-qualified for this task, for he has spent nearly sixty years visiting, studying, and teaching about Iraq. Polk presents a much more credible explanation of why the United States has become unpopular in the Muslim world that Bernard Lewis did in his CRISIS OF ISLAM. He is also a better writer than Lewis, marshalling his facts and opinions into crisp, orderly prose.

Polk identifies mistakes recent US administrations have made in dealing with Iraq; many of them eerily similar to those made by the Brtish during their rule under League of Nations mandate in the 1920's and 1930's. The "shock and awe" of that era was generated by "armed Fords" and biplanes. The British installed as puppet king, Faisal, a man who had never previously set foot in the country. The US selected to head the Provisional Authority, Iyad al-Allawi, who once was a senior Baathist in Saddam's secret police and then for thirty years an anti-Saddam expatriate funded by the CIA. Another grievous US mistake, according to Polk, is in creating a large, well-trained Iraqi army instead of a large, well-trained Iraqi police force. It was the British-trained Iraqi army whose revolt in 1958 led to the dictatorship of Saddam.

Anyone still doubting the old saw about the need to learn from history to avoid repeating its mistakes ought to read the letter T E Lawrence (of Arabia)wrote to the London Times in 1920. "The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it..."

If You Only Read One Book on Iraq, Skip This One
Given the author's creditials, of which we are constantly reminded, I expected more out of this book. This is not to say it is a bad book per se. Dr. Polk does provide some excellent insights and points. Having just returned from over a year in Iraq and reading quite a bit on the subject before and during that time, I found various passages in his book that complemented my study and experiences. I would not, however, recommend this book to someone doing a casual read on the subject. Despite the title, "the Whole Sweep of Iraqi History..." merely serves to backup his critique of American policy in Iraq, particularly the alleged role of Neo-Conservatives. I don't necessarily disagree with many of his points--several are right on target--but the reader should understand that this is a book with a clear, political objective. At times the tone is shrill and his "facts" about the events of the last two years, many I witnessed, are often off. His critique of policy mistakes are generally valid, but his proposed solutions are surprisingly naive for someone with his experience with Iraq. While he is rightfully critical of the apparent ignorance of some policy makers and Americans in general about Iraq, I suspect he is guilty of the equally dangerous trap of going native and becoming too close to his subject for objective analysis. A far better book--certainly for someone just starting to read about Iraq--is "The Reckoning" by Sandra Mackey. If you only read one book on Iraq, read Mackey's not Polk's.