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First published in 1964, Ancient Iraq is the classic work on Mesopotamia and the great civilizations that sprung from the region bounded by the Euphrates and Tigris. It remains an invaluable primer for anyone fascinated by the extraordinary ruins and artworks which have emerged from generations of archaeological digs. The book gives a lively, comprehensive account, from the earliest city fragments through the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians through to its decline under Hellenisti...

In 1987, Latif Yahia was taken to Saddam's headquarters to meet Uday, Saddam's eldest son, and told that a great honour has been bestowed upon him: that because of the great likeness between them, he had been chosen to be Uday's double. For many Iraquis, it would have been the highlight of their lives, but for Latif, a peace-loving man who did not agree with Saddam's brutal regime, it was not. He refused. Following a week of torture and realising he would be killed if he continued to refuse, Lat...

Iraq's people, cities and countryside remain unknown to most outsiders. With this important book, revealing daily life behind the headlines, photographer and explorer Daniel Whitfield's travels across Iraq bring the country to the reader in stunning pictures and words. City scenes in the streets and markets, Mesopotamia's ancient archaeological inheritance unrivalled anywhere else in the world, and most of all, the people of Iraq at work, at prayer, and at play. From the ancient ziggarat of Ur...

As long as there have been wars, victors have written the prevailing histories of the world's conflicts. An army that loses - and especially one that is destroyed or disbanded - is often forgotten. Nevertheless, the experiences of defeated forces can provide important insights, lessons, and perspectives not always apparent to the winning side. In Wars of Modern Babylon, Pesach Malovany provides a comprehensive and detailed history of the Iraqi military from its formation in 1921 to its collapse...

The missing piece in so many histories of Mesopotamian technical disciplines is the client, who often goes unnoticed by present-day scholars seeking to reconstruct ancient disciplines in the Near East over millennia. The contributions to this volume investigate how Mesopotamian medical specialists interacted with their patients and, in doing so, forged their social and professional identities. The chapters in this book explore rituals for success at court, the social classes who made use of su...

From the corridors of the UN to the palaces of Baghdad, an unprecedented, first person coming of age account of the oil for food scandal that rocked the UN. Michael Soussan was a young, idealistic diplomat when he landed his dream job as a Program Coordinator at the UN's Oil for Food Program, the largest humanitarian operation in the organization's history. His mission would be to provide relief to Iraq's civilian population, struggling to survive in a country under economic sanctions. But Souss...

Presents a narrative history and analysis of the Assyrian experience in 20th century Iraq. Who are the Assyrians and what role did they play in shaping modern Iraq? Were they simply bystanders, victims of collateral damage who played a passive role in the history of Iraq? And how have they negotiated their position throughout various periods of Iraq's state building processes? This book details the narrative history of Iraq in the 20th century and reinserts the Assyrian experience as an integral...

A lucid and engaging breakdown of the history, culture, and politics that define today’s Middle East. Untangling the Middle East is a layman’s guide to the history—political, religious, and cultural—that led us to the current challenges plaguing the Middle East. It covers the major interests and actors in the region, and helps to spin a narrative of the evolution of violence and conflict in this age-old hotbed of unrest. There are no easy answers or simple explanations to be found here, only a...

Imposing sanctions on Iraq was one of the most heinous of crimes committed in the 20th century. Yet it has received little attention in the Anglo-American world. Despite the calamitous destruction resulting from the sanctions, no serious attempts by legal professionals, academics or philosophers have been undertaken to address the full scope of the immorality and illegality of such a criminal and unprecedented mass punishment. "Genocide in Iraq" offers a comprehensive coverage of Iraq's politics...

"Eleven powerful pieces first published in The New Yorker recall the path terror in the Middle East has taken from a more peaceful time in 1990s Israel to the recent beheadings of reporters by ISIS.With the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. This collection draws on several articles he wrote while researching that book as well as many that he's written since, following wh...

This book is based on a journal Jim Schreiner kept during his deployment to the Persian Gulf region for Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM. Building upon that record and the recollections of other F-4G Wild Weasel aircrew, the authors show a slice of what life and war were like during that time. The pawns in the game, the ones that had to actually do the fighting and dying, were the hundreds of thousands of men and women who left their homes and families to live for seemingly endless mont...