Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq

Rating:
Summary: H. Dean should buy one of these for each Gulf War veteran
Review: This book gives a fair explanation of how the country of Iraq came to be. Specifically, the Middle East was under the control of France and England in 1910. Over the next 50 years, both masters would haphazardly carve up their desert empires into nations with very little consideration as to what the locals wanted. A primary example is Iraq's formation by Winston Churchill, who like Donald Rumsfeld now, probably did not put as much time and care into it as required. The formation of Iraq was made partly out of financial reasons (England not wanting to maintain a large presence there) partly out of strategic reasons (buffer regions against not-so-friendly neighbors in the Middle East) and partly out of political reasons (devolution of the colonies was becoming a serious political issue in England). The author addresses all of these issues and their effects on Churchill.

For those who want a solid introduction to modern Iraq's formation, this is the best book to read. I would not suggest this book for learning about Iraq in general. Unlike other books on this subject, there is minimal discussion of Iraq after the British left, and even less on Iraq's history before English colonization.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written and superficial... badly in need of an editor
Review: This is a very superficial work. Although described as a "Cambridge historian" and, according to the cover flap, he "teaches history at Cambridge University", in fact the author teaches Continuing Education classes at the Universities of Cambridge (U.K.) and Richmond, Va., U.S.A. The book reads like a rushed first draft. It is repetitive and disorganized, with little plan except a chronological line. Characters are barely developed, except that Sir Henry Wilson is either "the acerbic chief of the Imperial General Staff" (twice, pp. 75 and 82) or "irascible and violently anti-Lloyd George". We are told numerous times that Lloyd George was pro-Greek and anti-Turk (no explanation of why) and we are told time and time again that Churchill owes his political career to Lloyd George because the Conservatives considered him a turncoat. I cannot believe that a real editor read the work before printing, or that the author himself reviewed his first draft. The work also has little historical value and scarce analytical content. The subject matter is treated much better in "Peace to End All Peace" and "Paris 1919". Save your money... or you can buy my own copy cheap.

Rating:
Summary: Karmic histories, once and future Iraqs
Review: Whether there is psychological karma I do not know, but there surely is political karma, and this book traces the peculiar imperialistic origins and desinies of the Iraq triangulation and later geopolitical nervous breakdown to its roots, and perpetrators. It is a small world and who should have presided over this but Churchhill (I should have known that), not yet the wise fox of World War II heroism, but a younger and more reckless politico, in the midst of a mess in the making. The opinions in this book are reasonable, but even if further study could show problems and revised opinions, the amount of fresh information makes it an interesting read, if a bit ersatz. Usefully informative, and a way station to still further revelations, no doubt.