Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Chapters One: The Role of Discourse and Agency in Understanding the Mandate in Iraq Two: The Mandate system, the end of imperialism and the birth of the Iraqi state Three: Corruption, fragmentation and despotism; British visions of Ottoman Iraq Four: Rural and urban, collective and individual: the divided social ontology of late colonialism Five: Utilising the shaikhs, the rational imposition of a romantic figure Six: The social ontology of land; state, shaikh and peasant Seven: The imposition of order; social perception and the 'despotic' power of aeroplanes Eight: Conclusion. Understanding the Iraqi Mandate; beyond imperialism and Orientalism Bibliography