Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq by Hanna Batatu

Posted by J

Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq: A Study of Iraq's Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of its Communists, Ba'thists and Free Officers by Hanna Batatu

http://www.amazon.com/Social-Classes-Revolutionary-Movement-Iraq/dp/0863565204/sr=1-1/qid=1158374737/ref=sr_1_1/102-2114092-4768951?ie=UTF8&s=books

The late Hanna Batatu's masterpiece, this book published in 1978 is almost the only comprehensive, primary source-based history of any Arab country ever written. In the course of pursuing research in Iraq, Batatu happened to meet Abdul Karim Qassem who later went on to lead Iraq after the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy in 1958. The prior friendship resulted in Batatu gaining access to otherwise secret state archives. Combined with extensive interviews and on-the-ground research, "Old Social Classes" catapulted Iraq from one of the least understood Arab countries to nearly the best understood. At nearly 1300 pages the work is dense with detail including large numbers of tables and raw data to illustrate his analytical points.

[Note: This was out of print when I first wrote the review but has now been republished. If you're serious about getting to know the Middle East and willing to make a major investment of time and mental effort, there is no better book to do it with. Not easy, but was worth it for me.]