Up for auction is
SADDAM HUSSEIN
A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
by Efraim Karsh & Inari Rautsi
Brassey's (UK)
1991
Hardcover
Book condition:
Superb condition!!!! Dust cover: excellent condition, very slightly scuffed in places but overall great condition! Book: tightly bound, absolutely excellent!!!!!
Taken from the dust cover:
"Saddam Hussein's armies have been routed, but the world will continue to wonder just who Saddam was and how he came to exercise such power. In the heat of the recent war, journalists and others rushed to depict him as an implacable tyrant who could not be understood by reasonable Westerners. Now, however, two specialists on Middle East history and politics have combined their expertise to write the first in-depth political biography of the man who put Iraq on a collision course with the world. Drawing on a wealth of Iraqi, Arab, Soviet, Western, and Israeli sources, including interviews with people who have had close contact with Saddam Hussein thr his career, the book traces the meteoric transformation of an ardent nationalist and obscure Ba'th party member into an absolute dictator.
The authors examine the mind of the man, the way he actually thinks and feels. Karsh and Rautsi argue that fear and insecurity rather than unrestrained greed and ambition have inspired Hussein's actions, from his rise to Iraq's highest office to the invasion of Iran and the occupation of Kuwait. They demonstrate that Hussein is not an unpredictable megalomaniac, but that he has followed a consistent pattern of aggressive behaviour that serves his own personal and political survival. The man who held the world hostage, they claim, had no premeditated grand design, but merely a terrifying combination of paranoia and practicality.
Placing Hussein in the larger context of the ancient and modern Arab world and Iraqi history and traditions, Karsh and Rautsi examine the nature of the political system in which he thrived, a system built on blood and fear, betrayal and deceit. They skillfully interweave a realistic analysis of Gulf politics and history, with a penetrating inquiry into the mind of a contemporary tyrant. The authors decode the surprising and bewildering actions of Saddam Hussein, explaining how the same man could simultaneously inspire his people while committing them to untold sacrifices, could be loyal and generous to a kinsman while subjecting a political opponent to unspeakable atrocities, could be alternatively savage and restrained in his military decisions, and could appeal to international law at the same time that he was violating it.
This authoratative biography, the first to tell the full story of the Gulf crisis and the war through the lens of Hussein himself, is essential for understanding one of the most confounding leaders of modern times, as well as the events he set in motion and their long-term consequences."
We combine shipping so have a look at our other items!!!
