"The Iraqi revolution of 1958 was a landmark in the history of the Middle East. Only two years after the Suez Affair, when pan-Arab sentiments were riding high throughout the region, a group of nationalist officers of the Iraqi army overthrew the monarchy and esetablished a republican regime. This book assesses the causes and the social, political and economic consequences of the revolution which destroyed the old social order and led, after a protracted political struggle, to the rule of the Baath Party and since the late 1970s, Saddam Hussein. The inspiration of the study is Hanna Batatu's major work on the social and economic bases of Iraqi politics. 'The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (1978)'. The book concludes with a chapter by Batatu on class structure in Iraq, the role of the communists and nationalists in emancipating Iraq from British control, and the link between the revolution of 1958 and the crisis of 1990-1. Essays from leading scholars of contemporary Iraq analyse in detail the transformation of the Iraqi state. The contributors are: Norman Daniel, Wm. Roger Louis, Nicholas G. Thacher, Frederick W. Axelgard, Joe Stork, Rashid Khalidi, Marion Farouk-Sluglett and Peter Slughett, Robert A. Fernea, Roger Owen, Abdul-Salaam Youssif, Sami Zubaida and Hanna Batatu. There is a preface to the book by Albert Hourani"--Publisher's description p. [2] of dust jacket.