Two questions:

1. What are some of the best history books on Iraq going back to the Ottoman Empire?

2. What books on current affairs in Iraq have you 'enjoyed' reading. I just finished In the Company of Soldiers, and I'm on Fiasco now. It is kinda weird reading about dudes I've met and seen right after OIF 1. In the Company of Soldiers was pretty good for a quick read...jury is still out on Fiasco.

The Peace to End All Peace is about the collapse of the Ottoman empire and how the Brits and French tried to carve it up after WW I and during it for that matter.

It is not specifically directed at Iraq, which did not really exist at the time but was part of the leftovers---the Brits decided it would be useful to keep the ports because of the proximity to India and just lumped the Sunnis and Shia and Kurds together and drew some boundaries and appointed one of their western Arab flunkies as king.

And away we go.........!!!

Thanks, I picked it up from the library yesterday. Next on the list when I fisish Fiasco.

Loved In the Company of Soldiers. Didn't surprise me, since I really like Atkinson's WWII books.

Generation Kill wasn't bad. I think that's the only other "current" Iraq book I've read.

Read the biography of Gertrude Bell as well as T.E. Lawrence. The latter not exactly about Iraq but sheds history about the area that Fromkins book covers in detail.

My dad just gave me Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood by Donovan Campbell. He said its very good. I'll probably start it this weekend.