The Saddamist Era in the Rule of Iraq

About this book

Mohamed Hassan examines three decades of Saddam Hussein's rule as a system that concentrated state, party, military power, and public narrative around one leader. The study follows the rise of the Baathist order, the machinery of surveillance and repression, regional wars, sanctions, and the long damage inflicted on Iraqi institutions and society. Political events are connected to the daily experience of citizens whose country was repeatedly made hostage to authoritarian ambition. Without reducing Iraq to its ruler, the book asks how totalitarian systems recruit fear, loyalty, and spectacle. It offers readers a framework for understanding both the regime's endurance and the difficult legacy left after its fall.