Customer Reviews

Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam

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Excellent book for a concise and sufficiently detailed overview of Iraqi and related regional politics. I had read this book a few times before as a first edition, and although the post-Saddam period was of less interest to me (I'm writing a book related to the 1960's to 1980's period), it is still an excellent book to pick up again - informative and very readable (not too dense and academic). The author is clearly no fan of the colonial or imperial powers that manipulated Iraq (as it became)and the region over many decades. However, the book is balanced and by no means a polemic tirade against those powers. Worth having on the shelf.

Simons is very critical of the Bush & Clinton Administrations, as well as Arab dictatorships. He exposes much of the hypocrisy of western Realpolitik as applied to the Gulf. But is it really a surprise that big powers have selfish interests? Simons gives an excellent historical context but is weak on current trends and economics. He offered little productive insight or proposals to resolve the situation. I hoped for more commentary from the normally insightful Tony Benn in his too-brief introduction.

The history in this book is fair, but not particularly insightful. It consists mostly of facts and successions, but with little in the way of cultural understanding. The author's fatal flaw is that he makes his own religious bigotries very apparent, making the book almost unpleasant to read. This review is based on the 1994 edition, so it's possible some of this has been removed in later editions.