Iraq : : A Political History / / Adeed Dawisha.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Dawisha, Adeed,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2013]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: With a New afterword by the author
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (408 p.) :; 3 tables.

With each day that passed after the 2003 invasion, the United States seemed to sink deeper in the treacherous quicksand of Iraq's social discord, floundering in the face of deep ethno-sectarian divisions that have impeded the creation of a viable state and the molding of a unified Iraqi identity. Yet as Adeed Dawisha shows in this superb political history, the story of a fragile and socially fractured Iraq did not begin with the American-led invasion--it is as old as Iraq itself. Dawisha traces the history of the Iraqi state from its inception in 1921 following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and up to the present day. He demonstrates how from the very beginning Iraq's ruling elites sought to unify this ethnically diverse and politically explosive society by developing state governance, fostering democratic institutions, and forging a national identity. Dawisha, who was born and raised in Iraq, gives rare insight into this culturally rich but chronically divided nation, drawing on a wealth of Arabic and Western sources to describe the fortunes and calamities of a state that was assembled by the British in the wake of World War I and which today faces what may be the most serious threat to survival that it has ever known. Featuring Dawisha's insightful new afterword on recent political developments, Iraq is required reading for anyone seeking to make sense of what's going on in Iraq today, and why it has been so difficult to create a viable government there.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Consolidating the Monarchical State, 1921–1936 -- Chapter 3. Framing Democracy with a Certain Indifference, 1921–1936 -- Chapter 4. The Uncertain Nation, 1921–1936 -- Chapter 5. Turbulence in Governance, 1936–1958 -- Chapter 6. Potholes in the Democratic Road, 1936–1958 -- Chapter 7. Nationalism and the Ethnosectarian Divide, 1936–1958 -- Chapter 8. The Monarchy’S Political System, 1921–1958 -- Chapter 9. The Authoritarian Republic, 1958–1968 -- Chapter 10. The State Rules Without Rules, 1968–2003 -- Chapter 11. Politics in the New Era, 2003– -- Chapter 12. W(h)ither Iraq? -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Afterword to the 2013 Edition: So Much Promise, So Many Disappointments -- Index