3.29 AVERAGE


Published in 1991, it snapshots well the origin and entrenchment of the Ba’athist Party, before the personality cult of Saddam Hussein kicked into complete overdrive. This is eminently helpful, as the old party regime is an oft-skipped starting point in understanding modern Iraq. Here began the process by which the Ba’ath turned fear into the precondition for their own legitimacy.

“Truth was a fortress no longer assailable by the evidence of the senses.”