This book attempts to understand modern Iraq through a close examination of the political discourse used by the Baʿth regime and its leader, Saddam Hussein. By analysing political terms, concepts, and idioms as disseminated through the official Iraqi mouthpieces, the book illuminates Iraq's political culture and the events that these expressions have both reflected and shaped. Not only does this study hope to add to our understanding of the “Saddam enigma,” but it also hopes to offer a more universal truth: that under any regime or political culture is built on public discourse.
Keywords: Iraq, Baʿth regime, Saddam Hussein, political culture, political terms, public discourse, Middle East
Print publication date: 1998 | Print ISBN-13: 9780195114393 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 | DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195114393.001.0001 |