This is the first title about Muqtada al-Sadr, the most important political figure in post-occupation Iraq, who leads a movement that opposed both Saddam Hussein and the US occupation. The rise of Muqtada has been one of the great surprises of the occupation. At first grossly underestimated by the US, he has become the kingmaker of Iraq and a force that is indispensable to any Iraqi government. His combination of nationalism and religious fervour proved deeply attractive to countless angry and impoverished Iraqi Shia: the Mehdi Army, his devoted militia, now rules half of Baghdad. Far from being the 'firebrand cleric' portrayed in the Western media, Muqtada is an astute and experienced politician who struggles to lead an anarchic mass movement that he only half controls. In a compelling narrative, award-winning war correspondent Patrick Cockburn charts the rise of Muqtada. He examines the Shia uprisings; Muqtada's family background (in particular the martyrdom of his father, Mohammed Sadiq, and his father-in-law, Mohammed Baqir, by Saddam Hussein); his leadership of the 70,000-strong Mahdi army; his links to the Iranians; his ambivalent relations with the Iraqi government; and the botched attempt to kill him by the US. Cockburn has reported from Iraq since 1977, often at great personal risk. Muqtada al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq combines first-hand accounts of his investigations with vivid and dismaying descriptions of the war, and is one of the few books to be based on interviews with Iraqi eyewitnesses. It is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the tragedy of Iraq - and its potential consequences.

Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq

Patrick Cockburn

Faber and Faber

Broken Boy

OR Books, LLC

Henry's Demons: Living with Schizophrenia, a Father and Son's Story.

Simon&Schuster

An honest and harrowing dual memoir by a British journalist and his son, about the son's sudden descent into schizophrenia. It tells of Henry's steep descent into mental illness and of his father Patrick's journey towards understanding the changes it has wrought.

Henry's Demons

Parenting & Relationships

Simon Schuster Ltd

Out of the Ashes

History

Asia

Verso

How could things have gone so badly wrong? Writing in these pages with customary calmness and clarity, and drawing on unrivaled experience as a reporter in the region, Cockburn analyzes the unfolding of one of the West's greatest foreign policy debacles and the rise of the new jihadis.

The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising

OR Books

ISIS Ka Aatank

Prabhat Prakashan

ISIS Ka Aatank [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2017] Books Wagon (Hindi Edition)

Though capable of staging spectacular attacks like 9/11, jihadist organizations were not a significant force on the ground when they first became notorious in the shape of al-Qa 'ida at the turn of century. Though capable of staging spectacular attacks like 9/11, jihadist organizations were not a significant force on the ground when they first became notorious in the shape of al-Qa 'ida at the turn of century. Today, that has changed. Exploiting the missteps of the West 's wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, as well as its misjudgments in relation to Syria and the uprisings of the Arab Spring, jihadist organizations, of which ISIS is the most important, are swiftly expanding. They now control a geographical territory greater in size than Britain or Michigan, stretching from the Sunni heartlands in the north and west of Iraq through a broad swath of north-east Syria. On the back of their capture of Mosul and much of northern Iraq in June 2014, the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been declared the head of a new caliphate that demands the allegiance of all Muslims. The secular, democratic politics that were supposedly at the fore of the Arab Spring have been buried by the return of the jihadis. Writing with customary calmness and clarity, and drawing on unrivaled experience as a reporter in the region, Cockburn analyzes the unfolding of one of the West 's greatest foreign policy debacles and the rise of the new jihadis.

The Rise of Islamic State

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

leftword

Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Tantor and Blackstone Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Patrick Cockburn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Patrick Cockburn