Why read State of Repression?

Book cover of State of Repression: Iraq under Saddam Hussein

Book description

A new account of modern Iraqi politics that overturns the conventional wisdom about its sectarian divisions

How did Iraq become one of the most repressive dictatorships of the late twentieth century? The conventional wisdom about Iraq's modern political history is that the country was doomed by its diverse social fabric.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked State of Repression as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Yaniv Voller

Author

Researchers rarely have the opportunity to gain an insight into the inner workings of authoritarian regimes. Opening the Ba‘th Party archives to researchers has been one of these rare opportunities and has resulted in an outburst of fascinating works. Most of these studies, however, have been carried out by historians. Therefore, Blaydes’s research stands out, as it sets an example of how political scientists can benefit from archival sources and historical case studies as labs to challenge conventions in the field, in this case, about the origins of authoritarianism.

Blaydes provides a detailed and nuanced account of Ba‘thist Iraq, from…

From Yaniv's list on The best books on conflict and security in the Middle East and Africa.