Voices from Iraq

Featuring the testimony of close to seventy Iraqis from all walks of life, Voices from Iraq builds a riveting chronological history unmatched for its insight and revelations. Here is a history of the war in Iraq as told entirely by Iraqis living through the U.S. invasion and occupation.

Beginning in 2003, this intimate narrative includes the experiential accounts of civilians, politicians, former dissidents, insurgents, and militiamen. Iraqis offering firsthand stories range from onetime Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to resistance fighters speaking on the condition of anonymity. Divided into five parts, these interviews recount the 2003 invasion; Iraq's gradual slide into chaos from 2004 to 2005; the start of a new order in 2006; the rise of open sectarian violence over the next two years; and the effort since 2008 to reconstruct a society from relative calm. Each section includes interviews grouped into themes, with brief epilogues for the participants. Not since Studs Terkel's The Good War has a book captured so acutely the human consequences of a conflict we are still struggling to understand. Voices from Iraq makes utterly vivid the meaning and legacy of America's campaign in Iraq.

“This book is necessary reading for any serious practitioner or student of small wars.”

Oral history is a difficult genre to master, and by taking the works of Studs Terkel as his example, Mark Kukis has set the bar even higher. Yet he succeeds brilliantly, not only by the aptness and vividness of these accounts but also by his selection of the interviewees. -- Ali A. Allawi, former Minister of Finance, Defense, and Trade of Iraq, and senior visiting fellow at Princeton University Amid the looting and the blood-letting in Baghdad, Mark Kukis salvages some treasures. Voices from Iraq is like nothing we've seen yet in the writing on the war--the stories of everyday survival weave a tapestry both illuminating and haunting. No serious study of the invasion and occupation can do without this book. -- Quil Lawrence, former NPR Baghdad Bureau chief and author of Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood Is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East An eloquent, well-selected narrative of the Iraqi invasion and devastating aftermath.Kirkus Reviews Kirkus Reviews A moving account of the impact of war and occupation on ordinary people. -- Glenn C. Altschuler Minneapolis Star Tribune -- Michael Few Small Wars Journal

Mark Kukis covered the war in Iraq from 2006 to 2009 as a correspondent for Time magazine, and he has written for the New Republic and Salon. He is the author of "My Heart Became Attached": The Strange Journey of John Walker Lindh, and his work can be read at

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