The Modern History of Iraq
Phebe Marr
Westview Press
Iraq is a nation in search of cultural identity, a modern state that is attempting to accommodate the traditions of a very old society while coping with the rapid political and economic changes of the twentieth century. In this up-to-date study, Dr. Marr examines the political, economic, and social transformations that have created modern Iraq, beginning with its inception in 1920 and continuing through the 1958 revolution to today’s Ba'th regime. Her sympathetic but not uncritical look at Iraq’s problems and prospects, its political life, and its changing social and economic structure affords a clear picture of the country’s current political dynamics and its distinctive character as an Arab state in transition.
Phebe Marr is associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She lived in Iraq for several years while studying the national movement there and has conducted extensive interviews with Iraqi politicians, educators, and scholars. In addition to Iraqi publications and British archives, Dr. Marr has drawn upon information obtained from these interviews as source material for this book and other studies on Iraq.
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