About Banking on Baghdad

In Banking on Baghdad, NYT bestselling and award-winning author Edwin Black chronicles the dramatic and tragic history of a land long the center of world commerce and conflict. Tracing the involvement of Western governments and militaries, as well as oil, banking, and other corporate interests, Black pinpoints why today, just as throughout modern history, the world needs Iraq's resources—and remains determined to acquire and protect them. Banking on Baghdad almost painfully documents the many ways Iraq's recent history mirrors its tumultuous past.

Banking on Baghdad is the first history of Iraq presented in a global context. Woven through the boardrooms and war rooms of London, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul, Washington, and the other centers that set the agenda for its tragic history, Black has pieced together the corporate hegemony, oil politics, religious extremism, Nazi alliances, and intersecting global upheaval—all with a compelling, contemporary perspective.

Banking on Baghdad received two 2004 Best Book of the Year awards, from the International Society for Sephardic Progress (Doña Gracia Medal) and the World Affairs Council of the Great Lakes. Edwin kicked off his book tour in New York City in October 2004 and wrapped it up in April 2005 in Los Angeles, with stops in Dallas, Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale, Ft Worth, and more.