At a National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations July 2019 public affairs briefing with the Ambassador of Iraq to the United States, His Excellency Dr. Fareed Yasseen, a question was asked by an attendee about what books the ambassador and other specialists present might recommend to better understand the Iraqi people and society. Though generated in an ad hoc fashion and certainly non-exhaustive, the below list of books were identified during the discussion as helpful in beginning to explore Iraq’s vibrant contemporary dynamics.
Allawi, Ali A. The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/851982045
https://www.amazon.com/Occupation-Iraq-Winning-Losing-Peace/dp/0300136145
Batatu, Hanna. The Old Social Classes & The Revolutionary Movement In Iraq: A Study of Iraq’s Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of its Communists, Baʻthists, and Free Officers. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55856626
https://www.amazon.com/Social-Classes-Revolutionary-Movement-Iraq/dp/0863565204
Fernea, Elizabeth W. Guests of the Sheikh. New York: Doubleday, 1965.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1299671
https://www.amazon.com/Guests-Sheik-Ethnography-Iraqi-Village/dp/0385014856
Madaras, Edward F. Al Baghdadi: Tales Told By The Tigris. New York: Jesuit Mission Press, 1936.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1882815
https://www.amazon.com/Al-Baghdadi-tales-told-Tigris/dp/B002DIUREQ/
Makiya, Kanan. Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38079204
https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Fear-Politics-Modern-Updated/dp/0520214390
Marr, Phebe. The Modern History of Iraq (3rd Edition). New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1048757389
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-History-Iraq-Phebe-Marr/dp/0813344433
Thesiger, Wilfred. The Marsh Arabs. London: Longmans, 1964.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2132535
https://www.amazon.com/Marsh-Arabs-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141442085
Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq (3rd Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/657649733
https://www.amazon.com/History-Iraq-Charles-Tripp/dp/052170247X
Tripp, Charles. Islam and the Moral Economy: The Challenge of Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/254354997
https://www.amazon.com/Islam-Moral-Economy-Challenge-Capitalism/dp/0521863775