Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century

Read and download the introduction for free here (pdf)

Who are the Assyrians and what role did they play in shaping modern Iraq? Were they simply bystanders, victims of collateral damage who played a passive role in the history of Iraq? And how have they negotiated their position throughout various periods of Iraq's state-building processes?

This book details the narrative and history of Iraq in the 20th century and reinserts the Assyrian experience as an integral part of Iraq's broader contemporary historiography. It is the first comprehensive account to contextualize this native people's experience alongside the developmental processes of the modern Iraqi state. Using primary and secondary data, this book offers a nuanced exploration of the dynamics that have affected and determined the trajectory of the Assyrians' experience in 20th century Iraq.

• Includes oral history and ethnographic research on the Assyrian experience in Iraq
• Uses raw data on Assyrian villages in Iraq as well as references to ancient churches and monasteries which serve as a demographic history of Assyrian Christianity in Iraq in the past 100 years
• Utilizes Aramaic material culture to supplement the history of Iraq and the Assyrian experience
• Presents original and translated Arabic documents related to Iraqi Assyrian history from the 1930s to the 1980s