Showing how Britain tried, and failed, to maintain its political influence, economic ascendancy, and strategic position in Iraq after independence, the author presents an analysis of the possibilities and limitations of indirect rule by imperial powers in the Third World.

"A gripping new history of the British appeasement of Hitler on the eve of World War II. On a wet afternoon in September 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped off an airplane and announced that his visit to Hitler had averted the greatest crisis in recent memory. It was, he later assured the crowd in Downing Street, "peace for our time." Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began. [This book] is a groundbreaking...