In response to current events, Charles Tripp has updated his incisive book A History of Iraq to include developments as recent as mid-2002. Since its establishment by the British in the 1920s, Iraq has witnessed the rise and fall of successive authoritarian regimes, competing ruthlessly for power and resources. This struggle culminated in the dictatorship of Saddam Husain, who still maintains his grip over a fragmented and increasingly isolated society. Tripp's book traces Iraq's political history from its nineteenth-century roots in the Ottoman empire, to the development of the state, its transformation from monarchy to republic and the rise of the Ba'th party and the ascendancy and current rule of Saddam Husain. This is a story of social conflict, of power struggles between rival clans, of hostility and wars with neighboring states, as well as of their aftermath, and Iraq's deteriorating relations with the West. A History of Iraq offers incisive analysis of the making of a modern state and how it creates its own distinctive politics. Charles Tripp is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the co-author of Iran-Saudi Arabia Relations and Regional Order (Oxford, 1997) and Iran and Iraq at War (Westview, 1998).