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The modern history of Iraq is punctuated by a series of successive and radical ruptures (coups d'etat, changes of regime, military adventures and foreign invasions) whose chronological markers are relatively easy to identify. Although researchers cannot ignore these ruptures, they should also be encouraged to establish links between the moments when the breaks occur and the longue durée, in order to gain a better understanding of the period. Combining a variety of different disciplinary and methodological perspectives, this collection of essays seeks to establish some new markers which will open fresh perspectives on the history of Iraq in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and suggest a narrative that fits into new paradigms. The book covers the various different periods of the modern state (the British occupation and mandate, the monarchy, the first revolutions and the decades of Ba'thist rule) through the lens of significant groups in Iraq society, including artists, film-makers, political and opposition groups, members of ethnic and religious groups, and tribes. Table of Contents Introduction Dealing with the Past: Methodological Issues: Advice from the Past: 'Ali al-Wardi on Literature and Society Writing the History of Iraq: The Fallacy of “Objective” History The Sectarian Master Narrative in Iraqi Historiography Beyond Political Ruptures: Towards a Historiography of Social Continuity in Iraq The Monarchist Era Revisited : What Did It Mean to Be an Iraqi During the Monarchy? From Forty-One to Qadisiyyat Saddam: Remarks on an Iraqi Realm of Memory Building the Nation Through the Production of Difference Rethinking the Ba'thist Period: Digging the Past: The Historiography of Archeology in Modern Iraq Totalitarianism Revisited: Framing the History of Ba'thist Iraq How to “Turn the Page” Dealing with Victimhood: Whose Memories of Mass Violence? Between Oral and Official History: Fragmented Memory, Competing Narratives The Concept of Genocide as Part of Knowledge Production in Iraqi Kurdistan The 1991 Intifada in Three Keys: Writing the History of Violence 'Qadisiyat Saddam': The Gamble That Did Not Pay Off Shi'i Actors in Post-Saddam Iraq: Partisan Historiography: Partisan and Global Identity in the Historiography of Iraqi Religious Institutions Najaf and the (Re)Birth of Arab Shi'i Political Thought Between Action and Symbols The Politics of Population Movements in Contemporary Iraq: A Research Agenda: The Brain Drain in Iraq After the 2003 Invasion Cosmopolitanism and Iraqi Migration Representing Iraq History Through the Arts: Literary Glimpses of Modern Iraqi History and Society History and Fiction in the New Iraqi Cinema War, Crimes and Video Tapes: Conflicting Memories in Films on Iraq Poetry in the Service of Nation Building? Political Commitment and Self-Assertion Not Just “For Art's Sake”: Exhibiting Iraqi Art in the West After 2003 Appendix: State of the Art on Iraqi Studies: A Bibliographical Survey of English and French Sources