Despite being securely entrenched in power and having suppressed all political opposition, the Bathist regime that ruled Iraq from 1968 to 2003 still felt the need to engage in a massive rewriting of the nation's history and cultural heritage in both its high and popular forms. As this book makes clear, the regime's effort to restructure understandings of the past was an attempt to expunge a powerful tendency in the Iraqi nationalist movement that advocated cultural pluralism, political participation, and social justice. Based on interviews with Iraqi intellectuals under the regime of Saddam Husayn, and with Iraqi expatriates and on publications from Iraq both before and during Bathist rule, this book is an eye-opening look at one of the most important and misunderstood countries in the Middle East. This timely study also asks what the possibilities are for promoting civil society and a transition to democratic rule in post-Bathist Iraq.

The formation of the intelligentsia and modern historical memory -- Nationalism, memory and the decline of the monarchical state -- Memory, the intelligentsia, and the antinomies of civil society, 1945-1958 -- The crucible : the July 14, 1958 revolution and struggle over historical memory -- Memories of state ascendant, 1968-1979 -- Memories of state in decline, 1979-1990 -- Memories of state and the arts of resistance -- Memories of state or memories of the people? : Iraq following the Gulf War.