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The Dramatic History of Iraq in One Concise Volume"

The destinies of Iraq and America will be tightly intertwined into the foreseeable future due to the U.S. incursion into this complex, perplexing desert nation -- the latest in a long history of violent outside interventions. A country sitting atop the world's largest supply of crude oil, Iraq will continue to play an essential role in global economics and in Middle Eastern politics for many decades to come. Therefore, it is more important than ever for Westerners to have a clear understanding of the volatile, enigmatic "Land of Two Rivers" -- its turbulent past and its looming possibilities. In this acutely penetrating and endlessly fascinating study, acknowledged Middle East authority William R. Polk presents a comprehensive history of the tumultuous events that shaped modern Iraq, while offering well-reasoned judgments on what we can expect there in the years to come.

What really happened in the centuries of conflict between Europe, Russia, China, America, and the peoples of the Muslim world Crusade and Jihad is the first book to encompass, in one volume, the entire history of the catastrophic encounter between the Global North-China, Russia, Europe, Britain, and America-and Muslim societies from Central Asia to West Africa. William R. Polk draws on more than half a century of experience as a historian, policy planner, diplomat, peace negotiator, and businessman to explain the deep hostilities between the Muslim world and the Global North and show how they grew over the centuries. Polk shows how Islam arose and spread across North Africa into Europe, climaxed in the vibrant and sophisticated caliphate of al-Andalus in medieval Spain, and was the bright light in a European Dark Age. Simultaneously, Islam spread from the Middle East into Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. But following the Mongol invasions, Islamic civilization entered a decline while Europe began its overseas expansion. Portuguese buccaneers dominated the Indian Ocean; the Dutch and the English established powerful corporations that turned India and Indonesia into colonies; Russian armies pushed down the Volga into Central Asia, destroying its city-states; and the Chinese Qing dynasty slaughtered an entire Central Asian people. Britain crushed local industry and drained off wealth throughout its vast colonies. Defeated at every turn, Muslims tried adopting Western dress, organizing Westernstyle armies, and embracing Western ideas. None of these efforts stopped the conquests. For Europe and Russia, the nineteenth century was an age of colonial expansion, but for the Muslim world it was an age of brutal and humiliating defeat. Millions were driven from their homes, starved, or killed, and their culture and religion came under a century-long assault. In the twentieth century, brutalized and and disorganized native societies, even after winning independence, fell victim to "post-imperial malaise," typified by native tyrannies, corruption, and massive poverty. The result was a furious blowback. A sobering, scrupulous, and frank account of imperialism, colonialism, insurgency, and terrorism, Crusade and Jihad is history for anyone who wishes to understand the civilizational conflicts of today's world.

Two Americans cross the great Arabian desert on camel back-a daring journey in search of the last Bedouin tribes.

A collection of essays by noted historian William R. Polk, author of Violent Politics, Polk's Folly, Out of Iraq, Understanding Iraq, Understanding Iran, and many other books.

An analysis of current political situations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

The Nineteenth Century Great Game for control of Central Asia was played along the mountains and in the deserts of Afghanistan. The "players" were British and Russian intelligence agents of great daring and fortitude. They spied and fought, often alone and sometimes in disguise, far from any hope of support and frequently in deadly danger. Long after their time, a new version of the "game" continued in the Cold War. This is a fictional account of an episode in the in the modern Great Game -- the story of an Anglo-American-Russian espionage venture in which a young American intelligence agent carries on in the spirit of the old Great Game. It is based on an intimate knowledge of the country and the people and on actual events. It makes a riveting tale.

An autobiography of William R. Polk. Born in Texas at the beginning of the Great Depression and spending much of his youth on a ranch, William Polk considers himself to be one of the most fortunate men of our time. His travels have taken him throughout Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia and have thrown him together with many of the people who shaped our world. As he relates his experiences, he puts them into the context of the great events of our time. He was intimately involved at the center of the Cuban Missile Crisis, helped to negotiate two cease-fires in major wars, planned important aspects of American foreign policy, worked on nuclear problems with the Russians, and many other major isssues. During an active and wide ranging life, he dealt with such world leaders as the Shah of Iran, the President of Turkey, the Chancellor of Germany, the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of Egypt in addition to a wide variety of other "movers and shakers." In intimate detail, he shares these experiences in this moving and dramatic but personal history of our times

William R. Polk provides an informative, readable history of a country which is moving quickly toward becoming "the" dominant power and culture of the Middle East. A former member of the State Department's Policy Planning Council, Polk describes a country and a history misunderstood by many in the West. While Iranians chafe under the yolk of their current leaders, they also have bitter memories of generations of British, Russian and American espionage, invasion, and dominance. There are important lessons to be learned from the past, and Polk teases them out of a long and rich history and shows that it is not just now, but for decades to come that an understanding of Iran will be essential to American safety and well-being.

From the fearful crossing of the stormy Atlantic to the growth of the early settlements, from the French and Indian War and the unrest of the 1760s to the inevitable break with England--here is an insightful and fascinating account of the transformation of an unknown land into an extraordinary nation.

In this provocative history of colonial America, William R. Polk explores the key events and individuals that defined this critical epoch by offering vivid descriptions of the societies the Europeans came "from" and what they believed they were going "to," while introducing the native peoples encountered in the New World and the black Africans who were brought across the Atlantic. As John Adams would point out to Thomas Jefferson, the long years that witnessed the formation of our national character and the growth of our spirit of independence were indeed the real revolution. That is the compelling story at the root of "The Birth of America."

Former senator George McGovern and William R. Polk, a leading authority on the Middle East, offer a detailed plan for a speedy troop withdrawal from Iraq.

During the phased withdrawal, to begin on December 31, 2006, and to be completed by June 30, 2007, they recommend that the Iraq government engage the temporary services of an international stabilization force to police the country. Other elements in the withdrawal plan include an independent accounting of American expenditures of Iraqi funds, reparations to Iraqi civilians for lives lost and property destroyed, immediate release of all prisoners of war, the closing of American detention centers, and offering to void all contracts for petroleum exploration, development, and marketing made during the American occupation.

To understand Iraq, and the dynamics at work there, it is essential to know the country's history. This is self-evident to the point of being a cliche. But 12,000 years of history can be intimidating. In "Understanding Iraq", one of the world's most respected Middle East historians provides a highly readable yet intelligent digest, taking the reader on a sweeping tour from the first Sumerian settlements on to the Babylonians, the dramatic advent of Islam, the destructive invasion of the Mongols, centuries of Ottoman rule, in to the turbulent twentieth century and today's experiments in Western styles of democracy. Fast-paced and full of vivid detail "Understanding Iraq" helps the reader comprehend this complicated nation, struggling today to reconcile its diversities and contradictions: Arab and Kurd, Shii and Sunni, traditionalist and modern, secular and religious, pragmatic and radical. Polk culminates in a damning indictment of the US for failing to learn the lessons of history in Iraq. He sets out those lessons here in a compelling and fascinating narrative.

Guerrilla warfare is not just the tool of modern-day terrorists in the Middle East. Its roots stretch back to our very own revolution.

In Violent Politics, William R. Polk takes us on a concise, brilliant tour of insurgencies throughout history, beginning with America's own struggle for independence. Continuing on, Polk explores the role of insurgency in other notable conflicts--including the Spanish guerrilla war against Napoleon, the Irish struggle for independence, the Algerian War of National Independence, and Vietnam--eventually landing at the ongoing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the lessons of this history are needed more than ever.

Polk's Folly is William Polk's captivating investigation of his impressive family tree and of the broader American tale it narrates.

Growing up in Texas in the late 1930s, listening to his grandmother's memories of her childhood amidst the Civil War, Polk became fascinated by tales of his family's engagement in monumental moments of our nation's history. Beginning when Robert Pollok fled Ireland in the 1680s, Polk's saga includes an Indian trader, an early drafter of the Declaration of Independence, one of our greatest presidents, heroes and rascals on both sides of the Civil War, Indian fighters, a World War I diplomat, and Polk's own brother, a journalist who reported on the Nuremberg Trials. Full of stunning detail and based on primary historical documents, Polk's Folly is a grand American chronicle that allows history to include the lives that made it happen.

How important are foreign affairs in the grand scheme of civilization? Do defenses against the invasion of strangers influence the evolution of culture? Drawing on decades of experience in government as well as in the academy, William R. Polk offers a uniquely informed, comprehensive view of foreign relations. Bridging academic disciplines he treats foreign affairs as they occur in the real world. Instead of separating diplomacy, intelligence and espionage, defense and warfare, trade and aid, intervention and law from one another, he shows how they interact and together form a whole pattern with which we must deal if we are to move safely into the 21st century. But "Neighbors and Strangers" is not just a guide to the future; Polk draws upon all recorded history, and indeed upon studies of animal and primitive social behavior, and from the entire world for vivid examples to illuminate for the general reader the underlying principles and consistencies that characterize relations with foreigners.
Indeed, going deeper into the human experience, Polk documents "fear of the foreigner" as a visceral response so deep-seated and so pervasive that it transcends human memory, individual experience and even logical analysis. More generally, he shows that the tension created by having to live as neighbors with those who, in the definition of contemporaries, were irredeemably alien has been one of the major causes of the rise of civilizations.
Accessible and engaging, "Neighbors and Strangers" is a revelatory look at how foreign affairs are a profound reflection of human nature.