Reviews (3)

Good basic map
I purchased this map to help my kids keep track of the location of their father in Iraq.It is all on one side so we could post it on a large bulletin board.It works well for our purpose.I only which it showed long. and lat. but it is meant to be a road map so I suppose I am expecting a lot.

The best of a weak collection of available materials
This product is useful for area familiarization for the American on his or her way to Iraq, the best of three different maps I ordered.A good reference for the lay of the land of the entire country, but no detailed inserts of cities other than central Baghdad. The map is printed on only one side, so there would have been more than enough space to cover the provincial cities. The ITM Baghdad map is not quite so worthwhile, almost no detail whatsoever, but a handy sketch of the main districts of the city. I had hoped to find maps with the Arabic script place names alongside the English, but perhaps that was too much too hope for.

Perfectly serviceable map of Iraq
Bought this to be able to follow news reports.It has towns, cities, roads, railways, political divisions, contour lines and color coding, oilfields (though not very detailed).Read more

Subjects:  1. Maps    2. Iraq    3. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Reviews (1)

Vanished Extraordinary World
Thesiger's travels through the lands of 'Arabia', and his observations about the people who lived there, are important...and wonderful. I don't know why this book is out of print, since it describes brilliantly (and compassionately) the now-vanished world of Iraq's Marsh Arabs. This book was written in the mid-20th century, about the tribes who live/d at the confluence of the Tigris & Euphrates rivers. They lived (and are still trying to live) in what is probably the cradle of civilization, although Sadaam Hussein drained the marshes to end the resistance of the tribes there. Westerners struggling to understand the middle-east can start with anything by Thesiger. He retained some of the British Imperialist condescention toward Arabs, but seemed to feel a similar condescention toward his British peers...kind of a cranky guy. The book is great, though: c'mon somebody: get this book back into print!! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Iraq in a Nutshell
Ms. Roraback's "Iraq ina Nutshell" as well as her entire Nutshell Note series should be required reading in our Public Schools. Ms. Rorabacks' written workwill "open the eyes " of readers wishing to learn and experience the present middle east including information regarding itsorigin, social and cultural way of life. The "Iraq in a Nutshell" book is extremely organized, professional and informative. Ms. Roraback has a profound way of sharing information while beingcompletely objectiveboth politically and religiously . Our present perceptions of the middle east are generally based on both myth and strero-type. Ms. Roraback has managed to show us a new a clear image of a people and land we know little about. I highly recommended this reading.Daniel Burke, Los Angeles, Ca.

A Must-Read for Every American
I am amazed at how clearly, concisely, and objectively this book explains the complex history and politics of Iraq in just 60 pages!As a high school history teacher I strongly recommend this book for every household, classroom, and White House bookshelf.

Excellent, informative and well written!
I have a few of these "Nutshell Notes" books and I have even visited the website, www.nutshellnotes.com and I must say that these books do a superb job of telling it like it is--no fluff, no confusion, no words that I have to look up in the dictionary every other sentence, just pure, concise information. Read more

Subjects:  1. Iraq    2. Middle East - General    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Asian studies   

Reviews (1)

Baghdad City Map by ITMB
Pre-2003 Coalition invasion. Not a bad product, but obviously not updated regarding names, etc. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Maps    2. Iraq    3. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Subjects:  1. Maps    2. Maps & Road Atlases    3. Travel    4. Travel - United States    5. United States - General   

Reviews (5)

If you go to Iraq, you need a lot more than a book ...
This book was published pre-war and at least one of the authors was a long-time advocate of lifting sanctions and ally of John Pilger. It's terrible on the Kurdish regions. HoboTraveler.com in Iraq Using This Book.
It is the only book available with any hotels listed. Life in Iraq
I read this book by chance, it's title grabbed my attention. Why on earth would anyone be crazy enough to travel to Iraq (other than journalists / aid workers / soldiers)?I searched hard to find the usual travel-guide fodder: How to get into the city, what to see, where to eat, where to stay.Read more

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Iraq    5. Travel & holiday guides    6. Travel / Middle East / General   

Reviews (5)

A portrayal of Baghdad in the 1930s
The book offers a unique protrayal of Baghdad in the 1930s through the eyes of a young British woman who lived amongst its slum dwellers on less than �1 a day. Freya Stark's day-to-day encounters with people in the slums juxtaposed with Iraqi intelligentsia and the detached British elite who ruled Iraq through the mandate, offers a valuable insight into how short-sighted and flawed was the British imperial outlook on nation-building in Mesopotamia.

History repeats itself
This is a short little book, of Stark's travels through modern-day Iraq, but interesting now because many of the places she traveled to freely in the 30's are in the news today. Stark was one of the many "Arabists" who traveled the Middle East freely and actually lived in a Baghdad slum for many months just to get closer to the natives. It is more of a travelogue than a political treatise, but her observations and conversations with the old order of the Bedouins and others are interesting. She notes the graveyards of English soldiers who were killed during the days when the newly formed Iraq was a British protectorate after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after WWI and concludes that these were lives wasted on a very backward country, without understanding the reason this country was important was not for its medievel culture but its oil. Her observations would be considered substantially "politically incorrect" today, but her access to some of the tribal leaders resulted in very interesting conversations, not the least of which was her meeting with Shaikh 'Abdu'l-Husain and his warnings about the developing events in Palestine, before the creation of Israel, but after the Balfour declaration.
Excellent insight into humanity
An excellent book with timeless insight into humanity across cultures.Gives context to attitudes still prevalent today, demonstrated by long historic traditions. The writing has gems of phrases interspersed with diary like accounts of travels.Ms. Stark was definitely a woman ahead of her time. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Baghdad (Iraq)    2. Description and travel    3. Essays & Travelogues    4. General    5. Iraq    6. Middle East - General    7. Reference    8. Social life and customs    9. Stark, Freya    10. Travel - General    11. Journeys    12. Travel / Essays & Travelogues   

Subjects:  1. Iraq    2. Jordan    3. Kuwait    4. Lebanon    5. Maps, charts & atlases    6. Syria    7. United Arab Emirates   

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Travel Guides    5. Iraq    6. Travel & holiday guides    7. Travel / Middle East / General   

Subjects:  1. Description and travel    2. Middle East   

Subjects:  1. Iraq    2. Travel writing   

Subjects:  1. Asahel,Grant,Nestorians,lost tribes,manners,customs,ceremonies,ancient,Assyria,Armenia,Media,Mesopotamia,scripture,prophecy,iraq    2. Travel / Africa   

Subjects:  1. Iran    2. Iraq    3. Kuwait    4. Maps, charts & atlases    5. Travel / road maps & atlases    6. United Arab Emirates   

Subjects:  1. Description and travel    2. Iraq    3. Voyages And Travels   

Editorial Review

After the month-long Gulf War of 1991, Iraq's Kurdish minority began to rise against Saddam Hussein's regime, which had in previous years engaged in genocidal campaigns, including assaults with chemical weapons, that killed as many as 180,000 people. United Nations peacekeeping forces helped established a "safe haven" in Iraqi Kurdistan (a section of northern Iraq that runs along the borders of Turkey and Iran) and elections were soon held. Teresa Thornhill, an English barrister who became concerned with the plight of the Kurds through an ex-partner's personal connection to Iraq, took two trips to the region in 1993 to see for herself how the efforts at democracy were progressing.Read more

Subjects:  1. Description and travel    2. Essays & Travelogues    3. Iraq    4. Kurdistan (Iraq)    5. Kurdiståan (Iraq)    6. Kurds    7. Middle East - General    8. Politics and government    9. Social life and customs    10. Travel    11. Travel - Foreign    12. ASIA    13. Journeys    14. Kurdistan    15. Thornhill, Teresa    16. Travel writing    17. Women's studies   

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Reviews (2)

Lost voices in the wilderness
It is astounding that in such a short time the world can change so dramatically. The events in this book are a little over 40 years old yet so much has changed and so much may be lost forever. Maxwell documents thelives of these wonderful people and a land that is rapidly disappearingnow. The roots of the 'otter' books are also here in the eventual arrivalof Mijbil. Sadly, even the status of Mij's sub-speciation has nowapparently disappeared too. Anyone with an interest in the lives of otherpeople should have a copy of this book in their libraries.

Poetic, magnificent.
Maxwell is one of the lost breed of British travelers who raised their adventures in unknown lands (and recordings of the same) to an art form. Like the better-known Wilfred Thesiger, Maxwell spent part of his lifeamong the ma'dan, the Shi'i marsh Arabs of southern Iraq. His book is, likeThesiger's "Marsh Arabs," an awe-inspiring treatment of the life,work, recreation, physical environment, and culture of the ma'dan atapproximately mid-century, when Baghdad had yet to extend its politicalgovernance and physical infrastructure to the marshes. Until recentdecades, the economy and lives of the ma'dan remained similar to theancient practices of their Sumerian forbears, according to other writers.These people, whose habitats, villages, and very lives are beingprogressively snuffed out by the Iraqi government since 1991, are one ofthe forgotten peoples of the world, and this book is a moving, impressivetestament to what they were. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign   

Reviews (15)

The untold story.
This is an excellent well written book. It will inform the reader about how recent and past events have effected the lives of many Iraqis. Readers will rarely find this type of coverage elsewhere either on TV or in the newspapers. Eric, Vancouver
The human face of a demonized people
Most journalists in Iraq today, with few important exceptions, remain embedded with the US military, relying on Iraqi reporters who risk their lives to do actual reporting, or simply repackaging the latest press release from inside the Green Zone. Hadani Ditmars is a vital, welcome, exception. In this important book she takes us into the homes and communities of Iraqis from many walks of life to show the feelings, desires, hopes, and thoughts of a people who have been demonized in our media and who have had their lives torn to shreds by an occupying power that actually has contempt for the lives of the people it claims to have liberated.

This is about the real people of Iraq.
This is a fine book.Ditmars took me on a tour of her experiences as a Canadian journalist, culling on 7 years of assignments in Iraq. With the exception of the front page of today's Oregonian, "Life and Death in Baghdad", I have seen nothing else in my reading of the news, and my favorite magazines, that comes close to showing how the everyday life of Iraqis is affected by the occupation, and previous sanctions. Everywhere else I see journalists dealing in abstractions, without a shred of cultural understanding and true compassion.With courage and aplomb,the author is able to use a variety of connections and disguises to connect with artists, musicians, intellectuals, laborers, prison keepers, health care givers, a suspected undercover agent, and even a "king in waiting". She is sensitive also to the women and children of Iraq, in these very trying times. We need more good books and reports about life on the ground in that distressed country.
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Subjects:  1. Ditmars, Hadani    2. Essays & Travelogues    3. Ethnic Studies - General    4. Foreign relations    5. General    6. Iraq    7. Iraq War, 2003-    8. Middle East - General    9. Personal narratives, Canadian    10. Political Science    11. Politics/International Relations    12. Travel    13. Travel - Foreign    14. United States   

Reviews (1)

What Iraqis Were Like BEFORE Saddam!
Excellent read. If you have been wondering, like I have, will the Iraqi people have the ability to trancend Saddam and go forward, then this book is your bedside companion. It's 1966, the author and his wife, Texans, fresh from UT Austin on a Fullbright scholarship, journey to Bagdad. Along the way we are treated to visions of the time before Saddam and get to know the people as this not-too-worldly couple surround you with their impressions of the culture, the daily life, and the ordinary Iraqi's whom they encounter at every turn. Numerous incidents from this book lift it from the relm of mere travel tales into the distinct encounter of suspense. As you read, knowing what is going to happen, when the teacher chats so easily with his students, makes you wonder if they surivived, how they survived, and how Saddam has marked their lives. I only wish we could see these people today on their way to a betterlife. I couldn't put it down till I finished. I'm buying copies for Christmas presents.Impressive. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Abuse - General    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Personal Memoirs    4. Self-Help    5. Travelers    6. Coping with personal problems    7. Self-Help & Practical Interests   

Subjects:  1. Travel    2. Iraq    3. Living & working abroad    4. Travel writing   

Subjects:  1. General    2. Middle East - General    3. Military - Iraq War    4. Modern - 21st Century    5. Photo Techniques    6. Photography    7. Photojournalism    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Subjects & Themes - Travel - World/Middle East    10. Travel - Foreign