NEW YORK TIMES
March 25, 2003
Iraq: A Reading List

This list includes books about Iraq, the 1991 war and recent events in the Persian Gulf. The books are linked to their original New York Times reviews. The books are arranged in order of date, beginning with the most recent.

Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles (2003)
By ANTHONY SWOFFORD
Out of the 1991 war against Iraq comes Anthony Swofford, a Marine sniper, to say in his book that he had a ball.

Saddam: King of Terror (2002)
By CON COUGHLIN
The journalist Con Coughlin's account of Saddam Hussein's career is a swift, grisly read, but it's light on analysis, especially about Iraq's ties to Al Qaeda.

The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq (2002)
By KENNETH M. POLLACK
An experienced analyst sees no realistic alternative to removing Saddam Hussein, and not on the cheap either.

The Reckoning: Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein (2002)
By SANDRA MACKEY
Sandra Mackey has written an accessible history of a country made by Britain, broken by nationalists, taken by a dictator, beaten in war, still rolling along.

Study of Revenge: The First World Trade Center Attack and Saddam Hussein's War Against America (2001)
By LAURIE MYLROIE
Saddam Hussein, argues Laurie Mylroie, driven by a desire for revenge following the gulf war, is the single greatest terrorist threat to the United States.

Saddam's Bombmaker: The Terrifying Inside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda (2000)
By KHIDHIR HAMZA with JEFF STEIN
A physicist who defected describes Saddam Hussein's quest for the bomb.

The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Crisis of Global Security (2000)
By RICHARD BUTLER
The executive director of the Unscom mission describes its failure and the larger implications.

Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein (1999)
By ANDREW COCKBURN and PATRICK COCKBURN
This sober yet intrigue-filled book by Irish-born brothers and veteran Middle East journalists asks how Saddam Hussein has consistently defied predictions of demise.

Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem -- Once and for All (1999)
By SCOTT RITTER
A former arms inspector in Iraq reports on the mission's failure.

A World Transformed (1998)
By GEORGE BUSH and BRENT SCOWCROFT
This book by the first President Bush and his national security adviser deals with the four major foreign policy challenges that they confronted.

Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (1998)
By SUSAN MEISELAS
A profusely illustrated book on the Kurds serves as the family album of a stateless people.

After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters With Kurdistan (1997)
By JONATHAN C. RANDAL
A reporter has spent 30 years trying to understand one of the Middle East's most enigmatic minorities.

A Modern History of the Kurds (1996)
By DAVID McDOWALL
David McDowall tries to account for the extraordinary failure of the Kurds to build a national movement that succeeded in bringing them security.

My American Journey (1995)
By COLIN L. POWELL with JOSEPH E. PERSICO
Genial and moderate, Colin L. Powell remains, even after more than 600 pages, maddeningly elusive.

The Generals' War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf (1995)
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and BERNARD E. TRAINOR
The chief Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times a retired Marine Corps general have joined forces to provide the "inside story" of the allied side of the first gulf war.

Live From the Battlefield. From Vietnam to Baghdad: 35 Years in the World's War Zones (1994)
By PETER ARNETT
Peter Arnett has constructed an engrossing memoir of reporters and war, lean and clear in its narrative, rich in anecdote, redolent in its description.

Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World (1993)
By KANAN MAKIYA
A prominent Iraqi dissident has written provocative book on the savagery of Saddam Hussein's regime and the wider failings of Arab political culture.

A Woman at War: Storming Kuwait With the U.S. Marines (1993)
By MOLLY MOORE
Anyone who ever wanted a front-row seat in a war theater will find it in Molly Moore's tense first-person chronology of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

It Doesn't Take a Hero (1992)
By Gen. H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF, written with PETER PETRE
A first draft of history, a serviceable but incomplete story of a complex coalition war by a professional soldier, a Patton with a conscience.

Live From Baghdad: Gathering News at Ground Zero (1992)
By ROBERT WIENER
CNN's former executive producer in Baghdad gives us a candid memoir, hammered out in picaresque detail, of the organized hysteria of television news coverage in Baghdad.

In the Eye of the Storm: The Life of Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf (1991)
By ROGER COHEN and CLAUDIO GATTI
This book by two journalists aims to chronicle the life story of the world's most popular general and much else besides.

The Outlaw State: Saddam Hussein's Quest for Power and the Gulf Crisis (1991)
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
A reporter for The Times has written a popular history of the Iraqi state, the rise to power and methods of control of Saddam Hussein and the relations between the United States and Iraq.

The Commanders (1991)
By BOB WOODWARD
Bob Woodward provides some of the first tantalizing glimpses of the first President Bush's war councils.

Baghdad Without a Map: And Other Misadventures in Arabia (1991)
By TONY HORWITZ
Out of his wacky, often hair-raising, experiences as a Middle Eastern correspondent, Tony Horwitz has fashioned a very funny and frequently insightful look at the world's most combustible region.

Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf (1990)
By JUDITH MILLER and LAURIE MYLROIE
The authors document how Saddam Hussein used the state's instruments of repression to destroy utterly his internal rivals while imposing a reign of terror on the entire country.

Republic of Fear: The Inside Story of Saddam's Iraq (1990)
By SAMIR AL-KHALIL
Samir al-Khalil's study of Iraqi politics is definitely required reading for anyone with a serious interest in Iraq or in the political dynamics of dictatorship.

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