
Memories of State
Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq
Eric Davis(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 28. February 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
397 pages
978-0-520-23546-5 (ISBN)
Description
Despite being securely entrenched in power and having suppressed all political opposition, the Ba'thist regime that ruled Iraq from 1968 to 2003 still felt the need to engage in a massive rewriting of the nation's history and cultural heritage - in both its high and popular forms. As this book makes clear, the regime's effort to restructure understandings of the past was an attempt to expunge a powerful tendency in the Iraqi nationalist movement that advocated cultural pluralism, political participation, and social justice. Based on interviews with Iraqi intellectuals under the regime of Saddam Husayn, and with Iraqi expatriates and on publications from Iraq both before and during Ba'thist rule, Memories of State is an eye-opening look at one of the most important and misunderstood countries in the Middle East. This timely study also asks what the possibilities are for promoting civil society and a transition to democratic rule in post-Ba'thist Iraq.
Reviews / Votes
"Eric Davis eschews traditional histories of Iraq that have tended to emphasize political personalities and struggles amongst them, and focuses instead on the relationships between culture and political control, civil society and state institutions, and intellectuals and policy makers. The result is an innovative and multi-layered analysis that is a pleasure to read." - Adeed Dawish, author or Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair"More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
19 b-w photographs
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-23546-5 (9780520235465)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Eric Davis is Professor of Political Science and former Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He is author of Statecraft in the Middle East: Oil, Historical Memory, and Popular Culture (1991) and Challenging Colonialism: Bank Misr and Egyptian Industrialization, 1920-1941 (1983).
Content
List of Illustrations Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Formation of the Iraqi Intelligentsia and Modern Historical Memory 3. Nationalism, Memory, and the Decline of the Monarchical State 4. Memory, the Intelligentsia, and the Antinomies of Civil Society, 1945--1958 5. The Crucible: The July 1958 Revolution and the Struggle over Historical Memory 6. Memories of State Ascendant, 1968--1979 7. Memories of State in Decline, 1979--1990 8. Memories of State and the Arts of Resistance 9. Memories of State or Memories of the People? Iraq Following the Gulf War 10. Conclusion Appendix: Charter 91 Notes Glossary Bibliography Index