Iraq: From Sumer to Post-Saddam

Excellent book for a concise and sufficiently detailed overview of Iraqi and related regional politics. I had read this book a few times before as a first edition, and although the post-Saddam period was of less interest to me (I'm writing a book related to the 1960's to 1980's period), it is still an excellent book to pick up again - informative and very readable (not too dense and academic). The author is clearly no fan of the colonial or imperial powers that manipulated Iraq (as it became)and the region over many decades. However, the book is balanced and by no means a polemic tirade against those powers. Worth having on the shelf.