Good Book on Iraq?

Wilfred Thesiger’s “Marsh Arabs,” which was published in 1964, is a classic, certainly not dry. The book is rather poignant, given the fact that it concludes 4 years before Saddam launched a coup and became a dominant force in the Baathist party. He later drained the marshes after the first Gulf war, after the US incited Shiites in the south to rise up against the dictator. Marsh Arab culture was annihilated.

Rory Stewart’s “Prince of the Marshes” is excellent. He was a British administrator in southern Iraq, during the early days of the current occupation—he was in his late 20s and fluent in Arabic. His chronicle is very well written, with an eye toward the history and culture of the region. He’s understandably critical of the catastrophe of the American-British intervention, despite the fact that he was, for all intents and purposes, a well-intentioned colonial overlord, trying to get warring clans to make peace.

The Shi’is of Iraq by Yitzhak Nakash

“Irak pieklo w raju” by Pawel Smolenski, if you happen to know Polish ;)

“The fall of Baghdad”
The Penguin Press
Ny 2004
John Lee Anderson