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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

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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.

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..."

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.

This is the book I had been looking for. Too may histories of this region are a catalog of battles and clashes of religions and ethnic groups which I have never heard of. As a "whole sweep" in one little book, it will not please purists. It avoids the catalog, to give us what we need to know to make sense of Iraq today.

The book gets even more interesting when Polk gives the modern day history. For instance, we learn about the rise of Saddam H. how and why Kuwait was set up.

[...] The book is designed to inform, not to mobilize.

[...]

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.

Overall it was a great overview of Iraqi history. Where the author is able to remove his present day passions from the work, its a great read. I found the discussion of Islamic and British Iraq intriguing. Where it loses objectivity is with 2001 forward. Several critiques of US policy were probably more correct than not, and its probably true that the US govt's reasons for entering Iraq were shortsighted at best, and possibly dubious. The impact of the failure to get people electricity, jobs, and air-conditioning is too lightly addressed. Also the author presents the insurgency in Iraq as being aimed more at the American Military, when in fact the majority of violence appears to be Iraqi on Iraqi. Not much insight on where to go from here. Overall a good read, I would recommend it for someone wanting a brief summary about the history of Iraq.

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.

William R. Polk's 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 is an attempt to provide the reader with a comprehensive treatment of Iraqi history given the prominence of this country on the contemporary geopolitical landscape. It is his contention that one must obtain a working knowledge of the history of the people, their culture and religion, in order to fully appreciate the current state of affairs. He treats the subject with great care reaching back over the millennia into the very early stages of civilization in the Fertile Crescent. Understanding these deep roots is essential for Polk's thesis.

One aspect of the book that raises concern is the lack of footnotes throughout the text as a whole. It is true that when Polk offers a strong statement often in relation to US policy, there is an asterisk with a source in the footnote. He does not expect the reader to consume his perspective based upon his credentials. He instead offers the original source that has brought him to his conclusion. If this were more prevalent throughout the work it would not only validate the author's credibility but would facilitate further study.

Polk has composed a gripping and reasoned analysis of the history of Iraq. He has covered a large amount of material but has still managed to provide lucid and relevant commentary on what is taking place in the Middle East today. In his conclusion he offers a glimpse of what Iraq may look like in the future as well as what America's role may be.

The purpose of this volume is straightforward (page xi): ". . .I am trying to give as complete a 'portrait' of Iraq as is now possible so that readers can evaluate the often confusing daily events. . . . I believe that knowing about events over-time is crucial to a perception of the present."

This book has several strengths in outlining Iraqi history: (1) it is brief and gives a sense of the sweep of Iraqi history in a way that can be digested well; (2) the history begins much earlier than other books on Iraqi history, going back to ancient times, about 6,000 BC; (3) it provides some context for examining the American occupation of Iraq after its invasion in 2003; (4) it is well written.

The downside is a mirror image: The historical coverage is quite brief and sometimes important events get short shrift. There is one page on the Assyrian empire, providing almost no detail. This is where other books can be more illuminating, because of their greater coverage of shorter slices of time. Books by Catherwood ("Churchill's Folly"), Dodge ("Inventing Iraq") and Tripp ("A History of Iraq") provide much more depth, albeit over more restricted time periods.

The book is organized by historical period. Chapter 1 focuses on ancient Iraq (Akkadians, Assyrians, etc.). Chapter 2 focuses on Islamic Iraq. This is the story of the rise of Islam and the split within that religion between Sunni and Shia (not told as clearly as, for example, in Nasr's "The Shia Revival"). Nonetheless, it provides context. Chapter 3? British Iraq. Here, the story of the British Mandate and its problems in trying to manage Iraq, a nation created by fiat. Catherwood's work is very good in its detailing of this era. And so on, up to Chapter 5--"American Iraq." Here, Polk examines the American invasion and its aftermath. The book concludes with a chapter that explores where we are now and where are things likely to go and what should the United States do.

So, a good brief crisply written volume. What is sacrificed? Depth and detail. But each reader will have to determine the tradeoff between these.

This book is a must-to-read for all American policy makers who are dealing with Iraq issue. As an Iraqi who lived in the "Revolutionary Iraq" period, as the author names it, I agree with most of what he said. However, I disagree with the idea mentioned in the book that Americans did not know that Iraq will invade Kuwait. Being less arrogant & reading a bit about the history of Iraq will definitely spare the Americans many lives. Till now, it is not too late to do so.