1. The rise of the Ba'th party; 2. Party structure and organization; 3. The Ba'th party branches; 4. Security organizations during the Ba'th era; 5. The Ba'th and the army; 6. The personality cult of Saddam Hussein; 7. Control and resistance; 8. Bureaucracy and civil life under the Ba'th.
A unique and revealing portrait of Saddam Hussein's Iraq which was every bit as authoritarian and brutal as Stalin's Russia or Mao's China.
Joseph Sassoon is Adjunct Professor at the Center for Contemporary Arabic Studies at Georgetown University. He is the author of numerous books including Economic Policy in Iraq, 1932–1950 (1987) and The Iraqi Refugees: The New Crisis in the Middle East (2009).
'Sassoon's writing is calm and deliberate.' The Times Literary
Supplement
'In Saddam Hussein's Ba'th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime,
Joseph Sassoon has worked his way through the meticulous records in
the archives to put together what is a fascinating portrait of the
regime, explaining how the Ba'th Party was organized, its
relationship with the army, the security organizations, the
personality cult around Saddam, and how the regime extended its
control over all aspects of life in Iraq.' Emma Sky, International
Affairs
'In this well-written and extensively researched volume, Joseph
Sassoon … provides critical insights into the functioning of the
Ba'thist party and regime. Deftly analyzing the party's internal
structure, intelligence organizations, and relationship with the
military, as well as Saddam's personality cult, patterns of control
and resistance, and bureaucracy and civil life under the Ba'th,
[he] weaves a fascinating narrative of social control and
repression.' Eric Davis, Perspectives on Politics
'… an impressively researched and perceptive book.' Weldon C.
Matthews, Arab Studies Journal
The Ba'ath Party came to power in Iraq in 1968 through Saddam Hussein's military coup and ruled that country until the U.S. invasion of 2003. Like most modern authoritarian regimes, Hussein's government produced and archived documentation of its policies, programs, and general activities. In April 2003, occupation forces captured millions of these documents and thousands of recordings of Hussein and his close Ba'ath Party associates, amounting to a treasure trove of firsthand information about Ba'athist Iraq and the inner workings of the Hussein regime. In this fascinating and highly informative book, Sassoon (adjunct, Ctr. for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown Univ.), an Iraqi-born scholar, relies on the captured documents to provide a first-rate analysis of how Hussein and his associates ruled Iraq. Unlike books on Hussein's Iraq that have relied largely on secondary sources, this one benefits from the author's heavy use of primary material hitherto unavailable. VERDICT A must-read for both scholars of the contemporary Middle East and readers who wish to gain a broader understanding of how one-party authoritarian regimes exercise control and maintain power.-Nader Entessar, Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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