Inside Iraq: The History, the People, and the Modern Conflicts of the World's Least Understood Land [Paperback]

John Miller (Editor), Aaron Kenedi (Editor), David Rose (Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1569244804 | ISBN-13: 978-1569244807 | Publication Date: February 2003

Known as the cradle of civilization, Iraq has a diverse and complex culture that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia. Now, with the U.S.-Iraq conflict over weapons of mass destruction continuing to grow, it is increasingly important for us to seek insight and solutions to this troubled region. Inside Iraq helps make sense of this nation's longstanding travails, detailing the past, present, and future of a place that is rich in oil and culture yet poor in leadership. Organized into three sections—History, People, and Politics—the collection includes nonfiction pieces by a distinguished roster of writers, historians, journalists, and scholars. This is an essential book for everyone seeking new levels of understanding about the place whose fate, now more than ever, has an impact on the entire world. Contributions by Tony Horwitz, Michael Kelly, Milton Viorst, Raymond Bonner, Jon Lee Anderson, Evan Thomas, Freya Stark, and many other distinguished writers are featured.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A good introduction not just to the variety of religious experience in the Muslim world, but also to the political dynamics that help fuel fundamentalist hatred of the West in general and of the U.S. above all."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"As the essays in this volume demonstrate in disparate ways, the fierceness of the [Iraq] debate is is entirely appropriate. Since the time of the prophet Abraham, the importance of Iraq has been out of all proportion to its geographical size. It was where writing, bureaucracy, and the rule of law were invented; and the site of the city of Babylon, from which the emperor Nebuchadnezzar – to whom Saddam [Hussein] often likes to be compared – 3,000 years ago invaded and smashed the first Jewish state. Seventeen hundred years later, the successive martyrdoms of Mohammad’s son-in-law Ali and grandson Hussein spawned the Shia branch of Islam, and so gave Iraq its holiest shrines; not much later Baghdad became the seat of Sunni civilization’s high water mark, the Abbasid caliphate. Now, in the twenty-first century, the outcome of events in Mesopotamia may be still more significant, to both the Middle East and the wider world." --from the introduction by David Rose

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569244804
• ISBN-13: 978-1569244807
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,457,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars great articles, sloppy editing, February 11, 2004

By 

"kwanzan" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Iraq: The History, the People, and the Modern Conflicts of the World's Least Understood Land (Paperback)

This compilation of previously-published articles about Iraq was evidently rushed to press in December 2002 when it looked like the United States might go to war with Iraq, and unfortunately the haste shows. Still, I have to recommend this book on the basis of its fascinating and very readable content.

The writers include journalists (such as Milton Viorst of the New Yorker), academics (such as Efraim Karsh of King's College London) and even a couple of "adventurers" (such as Freya Stark). The articles were well-chosen and from the first page to the last I was learning new things about Iraq, the Middle East, and politics and international relations in general. For example, while I had a vague idea about Kurds and Sunnis and Shiites before, now I really understand the historical tensions between the groups, the key figures involved and the future implications for the country. "Inside Iraq" achieves what it sets out to do, providing an excellent introduction to a country that claims much of our attention these days. Whether you are a hawk or a dove or are undecided, you'll benefit from reading this book. The articles do sometimes overlap, but it was actually nice to hear the story from another writer's perspective. Likewise, a few pieces were dated, but it was interesting to see what was known/believed at the time.

On the down side, there are an inexcusable number of typographical errors, which I am confident did not appear in the original versions of the articles (if the essay by Tony Horwitz is anything to go by). For example: "Hussein does not lake [take] criticism well...Ibrahim suggested that Hussein step dawn [down] temporarily in order to pave the way far [for] a negotiated cease-fire...Whether or not this incident actually task [took] place..." Ugh. To find so many errors in one chapter would be bad enough, but on one page? One can only conclude that transcription of the articles was done electronically, and whether for reasons of budget or time no human was involved in proofreading the final document.

Biographies of Miller and Kenedi are not provided, but in addition to this book they have edited "Inside Islam", "Inside Israel" and the somewhat less impressive sounding "Muhammad Ali: Ringside" and "San Francisco Stories".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Quick Iraq Sampler Overview, March 17, 2003

By 

Michael Palladino (Highland, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Iraq: The History, the People, and the Modern Conflicts of the World's Least Understood Land (Paperback)

Short articles by various authors with varying opinions is the strength of this collection. .....BR>I found it to be a fine introduction to the topic and it prompted me to read more. Paul Williams Roberts piece had me in stitches. Considering the serious nature and how upsetting the reality of life in Iraq can be, this was no small feat.
I learned a tremendous amount for a small bit of reading. The articles can be redundant and certainly overlapped topics. I actually found this helpful from a credibility and retention standpoint.
If you can get a copy on loan or at a discount price, I highly recommend it. .....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not terrible, but not great either, February 19, 2006

By 

Lee L. (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Inside Iraq: The History, the People, and the Modern Conflicts of the World's Least Understood Land (Paperback)

To begin, the target audience for Inside Iraq is/should be those that have done next to no reading about the country previously. If have more than just a passing interest for the subject and have followed up on it, then you most likely will not learn anything you didn't already know before. I bought this book several years ago for very cheap and won't get rid of a book about Iraq, but at the same time I don't want to have books sitting on my shelf that I haven't read...even if they're average books at best.

This is an edited text with multiple authors. Books like this can alway be hit or miss...in my opinion this book too often misses. Some of the contributors and their contributions are quite good, such as the Cockburn brothers, Said Aburish, and Efraim Karsh, but I found that at least half the book was unorganized and didn't really accomplish anything beyond giving the reader a very vague sense of Iraq.

With the exception of the Aburish piece, I found the first section of the book, The History, to be all over the place in its presentation and not helpful at all in understanding the history of Iraq. One part in particular was especially troubling. In the very first article written by Milton Viorst, he states: "Iraq is not a democracy-for one thing the press is tightly controlled-yet neither does it seem to be governed in defiance of the popular will." I was stunned when I read this. A statement like this that is so patently false coming on page 29 of a nearly 300 page book almost made it seem not worth reading. Luckily subsequent articles were better, but give me a break.

Several other reasons I found this book to be less that helpful is that firstly, there is no subject index at the end of the book. Why this was left out still puzzles me. Secondly there are no cited sources or references. The Cockburns' piece came from a book of theirs that I have read before and that had cited sources. This means that they were consciously removed for inclusion in this book. I think it does a disservice to those wanting to know more about Iraq when they are denied a look at where these authors are getting their information. Often times one of the most valuable parts to a book is being able to piece together a future reading list of works cited. Unfortunately this was not the case with Inside Iraq.

My response to a book like this is that if you're going to take the time to read about Iraq, you may as well take the time to do it right. Books on the subject written by the authors mentioned favorably above would certainly be a good place to start.