xviii, 196, [6] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Ink

xviii, 196, [6] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Ink notation of '1991' on title page. Ink underlinings and notations to early part of text. DJ has some wear and soiling. Dr. Amatzia Baram is a Middle East Forum Writing Fellow, as well as a professor emeritus at the Department of the History of the Middle East and Director of the Centre for Iraq Studies at the University of Haifa. Professor Baram served as an officer and commanded tank units in the Armored Corps during his regular military service from 1956 to 1960 and while in the reserves. Following the Six Day War in 1967 and started his education as an historian of the modern Middle East and Islam in 1971. He was "on loan" to the Iraqi desk at Military Intelligence as an analyst when the Iraq-Iran War began in 1980. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1986 for a dissertation on Baathi Iraq. He has taught at the University of Haifa since then. He wrote studies and lectured on Iraqi society for the American military between 2005 and 2009. He served as chairman of the Department of Middle East History and as Director of the Jewish-Arab Center in Haifa University and in the Institute for Middle East Studies. He is the founder and director of the Center for Iraq Studies at the University of Haifa. His main fields of study have been: Iraq 1920-2013: politics, religion, culture and society, with an emphasis on 1968-2011; Tribe and state in the Middle East; The Arab Shia; Political Islam; Baathi Syria. Professor Baram has advised the Israeli government and since 1986 also the U.S. government on Iraq and the Persian Gulf. In this book, an innovative approach to the study of ideology in the Arab world explores how, through culture and the reinterpretation of history, a powerful totalitarian regime has endeavored to cement internal unity among Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious communities. The book analyzes the ways in which, to imbue its citizens with a common destiny of Arab leadership, this regime has set out to convince the Iraqi people to see themselves as the heirs of all the great civilizations of Mesopotamia. Ba'athist Iraq, formally the Iraqi Republic until 6 January 1992 and the Republic of Iraq thereafter, covers the national history of Iraq between 1968 and 2003 under the rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. This period began with high economic growth and soaring prosperity, but ended with Iraq facing social, political, and economic stagnation. The average annual income decreased both because of external factors and the internal policies of the Iraqi government. Iraqi President Abdul Rahman Arif and Iraqi Prime Minister Tahir Yahya were ousted during the 17 July coup d'état led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of the Ba'ath Party, which had previously held power in 1963 and was led primarily by al-Bakr-who served as its leader-and Saddam Hussein. Saddam, through his post as chief of the party's intelligence services, became the country's de facto leader by the mid-1970s. During al-Bakr's de jure rule, the country's economy grew, and Iraq's standing within the Arab world increased. Iraq's conflict with the neighboring Imperial State of Iran due to bilateral border disputes over the Shatt al-Arab waterway served as a major external threat to the country's stability due to Iran's backing of Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. After dismissing al-Bakr in 1979, Saddam officially succeeded him as the fifth President of Iraq, as Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, and as Prime Minister and General Secretary of the Regional Command of the Ba'ath Party. Saddam's seizure of power occurred during a wave of anti-government protests in Iraq, which were led by Shias. The Ba'ath Party, which was officially secular in nature, harshly repressed the protests. Another policy change during this time was in Iraq's foreign policy towards Iran, a Shia-majority country which had recently undergone a major revolution that ousted the Shah, Mohammed Reza...