Customer Reviews

The History of Iraq (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations)

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The History of Iraq is a Cliff's Notes to Iraq's past that, according to its foreword, seeks to provide "students and interested laypeople with [an] up-to-date, concise, and analytical history."

Hunt, an attorney with no particular expertise in Iraq, indeed presents an easy-to-follow overview of Iraqi history, from the Paleolithic to the present. Most ancient dynasties-Kassite, Medean, Macedonian, Parthian, and Sassanid-merit no more than a couple of paragraphs. The Babylonians receive a few pages. Hunt condenses the first 800 years of Iraq's Islamic history into eleven pages. Four centuries of Ottoman rule pass by in five pages.

The post-World War I British occupation and the early years of independence receive a little more attention. But accuracy takes a back seat to turn of phrase. In history, the devil is always in the details, and too often, Hunt gets the details wrong: Winston Churchill's decision to convert the British navy from coal to oil occurred in 1911, not at "the turn of the century." At any rate, oil was not a major factor at the time. Iraq did not begin exporting oil in earnest until 1934 with the start of production at the Kirkuk oil fields. Nor should problems of Iraq's geography-chief among them lack of ports-be blamed on post-World War I arrangements. Kuwait was created in 1899, not in the wake of World War I. Nor, for that matter, did the British divide the Kurds into Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. The Iranian-Ottoman border was the product of a sixteenth century cease-fire between the two gunpowder empires. Blaming colonial powers may be trendy but, in cases such as this, it is counterfactual.

Other factual errors, many made in passing, mar the history. Palestine was not a belligerent power in Israel's war of independence. Any Palestinian hope for post-partition statehood ended with the invasion of Gaza and the West Bank by the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Iraqi armies. The Yezidis-a pre-Islamic religious sect populating northern Iraq-do not practice a form of Zoroastrianism. Their belief in a cult of angels is distinct. Likewise, while many Kurds resent Saddam Hussein for Arabization campaigns in Kirkuk and elsewhere (an ethnic cleansing is not mentioned by Hunt), Kurds were not "ideologically aligned" with the Islamic Republic of Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Ahmad Chalabi returned to Iraq months before, not in the wake of Saddam's fall.

Omissions also mar the history. Discussion of Iraq's historically important Jewish community-and the pogroms that led to its departure-is nonexistent. The Kurds receive only passing mention. The intellectual origins of the Baath Party are glossed over.

The History of Iraq may provide a bare bones outline of Iraqi history, but its omissions undermine its usefulness, even for the general audience. An encyclopedia article would be no less useful and, given the publisher's inflated pricing, would give more bang for the buck.

Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2006

Hunt's book on Iraq provides a contemporary image of the magnificence of Iraq and the power struggle that has endured throughout the formation of the country. Hunt begins with a description of Mesopotamia as the cradle of civilization - the "land between the two rivers" - and as the earliest center of human civilization. It was here in Mesopotamia that the dawn of mankind began amid the earliest upheavals in the country, a fight that has continued up to the present day. The past hundred years have progressively closed to western access to the land of ancient Mesopotamia, and Hunt brings a refreshingly compassionate vision of this desolate land.

The book gives readers a clear insight into the rich and tumultuous history of Iraq and will help readers have a better understanding of the Iraqi people and their culture. The book is written from a military and chronological perspective of all regions, with historical and cultural threads woven into an interesting narrative. The book profiles many historical sites, leaders, and stories on Iraq, and is an excellent starting place for those simply wanting a broad background on the country.

Thank goodness I checked this book out from the public library and didn't waste any money on it. It is a TERRIBLE book. A measly 108 pages of text does NOT do justice to Iraq (Mesopotamia), where the beginnings of human culture began over 20,000 years ago. This books isn't even a good "wet your appetite" book to nudge the reader to a more extensive volume on the region.

This book is supposedly geared toward a high school student audience, but I sure hope high school students get a MUCH better source for learning about this region of antiquity. It is like a "cliff notes" on Iraq, and the text itself is FULL of errors that an editor should have found and fixed before allowing the book to go to print. They aren't factual errors, simply typesetting errors (e.g. double words, mixed up words that make the sentences to NOT make any sense).

Granted the book was written and published in 2005, but the pathetic attempt at describing the Gulf Wars 1 and 2 were so inadequate as to be insulting to one's intelligence. Then again, the vast majority of Americans would soak up this book and think they knew all they needed to regarding Iraq. Sad, really sad that this kind of a book is allowed to be published and aimed at high school students. Hasn't the education system in the United States been bastardized, whored out and dumbed down enough already!?!

Don't buy this book, and don't even bother checking it out from the public library. Find a book that bothers to take some time to thoroughly explain the history of this incredible region throughout antiquity. A 20,000+ year old civilization deserves and requires WAY more than 108 pages to be respectfully explained.