Faisal I of Iraq

Allawi (The Occupation of Iraq), Iraq's first postwar civilian Minister of Defense, examines the foundations of Iraq through a sympathetic portrait of one of its founders, King Faisal I. He portrays the king as a pragmatist and moderate who maintained an unstinting commitment to the emancipation of his people amid the disruptions of European colonialism and the birth of Arab nationalism. Avoiding hagiography, Allawi's praise is at times faint: despite a lurid smear campaign implying the opposite, he writes that "Faisal himself did not openly philander"; and evaluating Faisal's comical efforts to adapt to London high society, he suggests that these instances "could be read as a caricature of the potentate from a backward land absurdly mimicking western ways," but that his political instincts were nevertheless top-notch. Allawi points out that Faisal's reign was engineered by T.E. Lawrence, who threatened to resign from the Foreign Service if he didn't get his way. Closer to a linear narrative of its subject's life and times than a groundbreaking work of historical scholarship, the events help us to understand the nature of modern-day Iraq. This tome will hold the interest of both general readers and specialists, and is notable for being the first full-length biography of the monarch written in English. (Feb.)