Review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921

Rutledge, Ian, Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921, London: SAQI, 2014

 

Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921 is a very interesting and easy read on the British colonization of Iraq and the revolt that it inspired. The rebellion was one of the largest the British faced in the 20^th Century and almost expelled them. The book is divided into two main parts. The first covers how oil drove the British to conquer the area of the Ottoman Empire that would become Iraq during World War I. That leads to the second half on the 1920 Revolt. The author Ian Rutledge’s thesis was the insurgency was led by religious leaders, landlords and commoners who opposed the British during the war and then led the earliest expression of Iraqi nationalism.

Review Iraq in Turmoil, Historical Perspectives of Dr. Ali al-Wardi, From the Ottoman Empire to King Feisal

Aboul-Enein, Youssef, Iraq in Turmoil, Historical Perspectives of Dr. Ali al-Wardi, From the Ottoman Empire to King Feisal, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2012

Iraq In Turmoil is based upon U.S. Navy Commander Youssef Aboul-Enein’s reading of Dr. Ali al-Wardi’s eight volume Social Glimpses of Iraqi Modern History. The commander believed it was important for the American military to understand the countries and societies they were operating within. That led Aboul-Enein to originally sum up the main points of each of Wardi’s books in the U.S. Army’s journal Armor. Those pieces were then collected together in Iraq in Turmoil, with an introduction by an American officer that starts off each chapter. Although Wardi’s massive 3,000+ pages collection claims to be a history of Iraq, it is actually about the entire region starting with the Ottoman Empire to the beginnings of Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. That meant while Aboul-Enein wanted to educate U.S. forces about Iraq, it is less than half the book.

Review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State

Kadhim, Abbas, Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012

The 1920 Revolt against the British in Iraq is a seminal moment in the country’s history. Over time, the event has been idealized, distorted, and misrepresented by the British, the monarchy, and every government in Baghdad afterward. The goal of Abbas Kadhim’s Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State was to cut through this literature, and represent what some of the leading participants had to say. Abbas believes 1920 marked a political revolution in Iraq where the tribes and clerics of the Mid-Euphrates rose up to demand Iraqi independence. It can be said that they succeeded in the short term, England gave up direct control of the country under the Mandate, but it maintained its influence over the country for the next 30 years via the monarchy it installed.