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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 | 
 enlarge | Author: William R. Polk
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 39956
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0060764694
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.7
EAN: 9780060764692
ASIN: 0060764694
Publication Date: March 1, 2006
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Product Description
The Dramatic History of Iraq in One Concise Volume 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 If You Only Read One Book on Iraq, Skip This One July 13, 2005
Carl L. Chappell, Jr. (Fort Lewis, WA)
68 out of 90 found this review helpful
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.
"Whose country is Iraq going to be?": A Central Question August 26, 2005
vabookreader
36 out of 39 found this review helpful
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 May 31, 2005
charles falk (Novato, CA USA)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful
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..."
Clear and Concise April 16, 2005
ndib (Montana)
18 out of 24 found this review helpful
In 200 pages and six chapters (Ancient Iraq,Islamic Iraq, British Iraq, Revolutionary Iraq, American Iraq, Whose Iraq?) Polk privides a historical perspective for today's events. I now understand something about the history of the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. I did not know that Kuwait was cleaved out of Iraq by the British to deny other colonial powers access to India via the Persian Gulf. I did not understand what motivated Americas relationship with Sadam prior to 1991. I did not know anything about the British occupation of Iraq before and after WWI.
Polk writes clearly and concisely. Polk says that if history is a good teacher, the longer we stay in Iraq the worse it will be for the Iraqis and for we Americans both in Iraq and at home. Polk may have an axe to grind. I don't know enough about Iraq to tell. If he does, he isn't obvious about it. If he does have an axe to grind, then someone needs to write the book America in Iraq - Why this time will be different.
Short, sweet, and to the point July 17, 2005
J. Josephson (Grand Rapids, MI United States)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I read a book of review of this in _The Economist_ and thought I'd give it a try. Excellent book--the history of Iraq for the person who wants to understand more of what's going on over there but doesn't have a job as a full-time historian. Enough history was covered to give you a feel for the general state of affairs in Iraq, and it gave me some insight into why things are unfolding the way they are now. I think the single most shocking thing that I learned was that the British had already been down this path before, and their occupation of Iraq didn't fare any better than ours is. Why didn't someone in charge read a couple history books?!
I found the book to be pretty well-balanced and thought the author did a good job of keeping his personal opinions out of the text. He may lean a wee bit to the left (based on some of his sources), but nobody can keep their biases completely out of their work.
The fact that the author speaks both Arabic and Turkish gives him credibility in my eyes, since I firmly believe that if you're going to even attempt to understand another culture, you really do need to learn the language.
At any rate, I think what this guy has written has far more insight and depth than anything that's come out of the Bush administration since this whole fiasco in Iraq began.
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