Our list of some of the best Iraq War books & series in recent years. Get inspired by one or more of the following books.
- 1. America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History (2017)
- 2. The U.S. Army in the Iraq War Volume 1: Invasion Insurgency Civil War 2003 – 2006 (2019)
- 3. American Warfighter: Brotherhood, Survival, and Uncommon Valor in Iraq, 2003-2011 (2016)
- 4. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005 (2007)
- 5. The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq (2006)
- 6. The U.S. Army in the Iraq War Volume 2: Surge and Withdrawal 2007 – 2011 (2019)
- 7. The Forever War (2009)
- 8. The Mirror Test: America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan (2017)
- 9. Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War (2006)
- 10. The Gulf War Did Not Happen: Politics, Culture and Warfare Post-Vietnam (Popular Cultural Studies) (1995)
- 11. Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War (Yale Library of Military History) (2014)
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1. America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History (2017)
From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country’s most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise—now more than thirty years old and with no end in sight. During the 1980s, Bacevich argues, a great transition occurred. As the Cold War wound down, the United States initiated a new conflict—a War for the Greater Middle…
2. The U.S. Army in the Iraq War Volume 1: Invasion Insurgency Civil War 2003 – 2006 (2019)
The Iraq War has been the costliest U.S. conflict since the Vietnam War. To date, few official studies have been conducted to review what happened, why it happened, and what lessons should be drawn. This publication, The U.S. Army in the Iraq War Volume 1: Invasion Insurgency Civil War 2003 – 2006, is the Army’s initial operational level analysis of this conflict, written in narrative format, with assessments and lessons embedded throughout the work. This study reviews the conflict from a Landpower perspective and includes the contributions of…
3. American Warfighter: Brotherhood, Survival, and Uncommon Valor in Iraq, 2003-2011 (2016)
This book is about what went RIGHT in the Iraq War: The untold acts of valor by some of America’s most highly decorated combat veterans, the brotherhood they shared, and the fighting spirit that kept them alive through the war’s darkest hours. Every word is true, composed from striking and detailed firsthand accounts by elite paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions, a Green Beret, an Army Ranger, infantrymen, combat medics, and Marines. You’ll discover their remarkable heroism as the war’s most significant operations are vividly described, including the invasion, the Battle of Nasiriyah, the…
4. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005 (2007)
Thomas E. Ricks ‘s #1 New York Times bestseller, Fiasco, transformed the political dialogue on the war in Iraq. Now Ricks has picked up where Fiasco left off-Iraq, late 2005. With more newsbreaking information, including hundreds of hours of interviews with top U.S. officials who were on the ground during the surge and beyond, The Gamble is the natural companion piece to Fiasco, and the two are sure to become the definitive examinations of what ultimately went wrong in Iraq….
5. The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq (2006)
The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. It brings to life the people and ideas that created the Bush administration’s war policy and led America to the Assassins’ Gate―the main point of entry into the American zone in Baghdad. The Assassins’ Gate also describes the place of the war in American life: the ideological battles in Washington that led to chaos in Iraq, the ordeal of a fallen soldier’s family, and the political…
6. The U.S. Army in the Iraq War Volume 2: Surge and Withdrawal 2007 – 2011 (2019)
The Iraq War has been the costliest U.S. conflict since the Vietnam War. To date, few official studies have been conducted to review what happened, why it happened, and what lessons should be drawn. This publication, The U.S. Army in the Iraq War Volume 2: Surge and Withdrawal 2007 – 2011, is the Army’s initial operational level analysis of this conflict, written in narrative format, with assessments and lessons embedded throughout the work. This study reviews the conflict from a Landpower perspective and includes the contributions of coalition…
7. The Forever War (2009)
An instant classic of war reporting, is the definitive account of America’s conflict with Islamic fundamentalism and a searing exploration of its human costs. Through the eyes of Filkins, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, we witness the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, the aftermath of the attack on New York on September 11th, and the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Filkins is the only American journalist to have reported on all these events, and his experiences are conveyed in a riveting narrative filled with unforgettable characters and astonishing scenes. Brilliant and fearless, is not just about…
8. The Mirror Test: America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan (2017)
J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the U.S. State Department. Upon returning home, traveling throughout the United States to pay his respects to the dead and wounded, he wondered what lessons, if any, could be learned from these wars.In this essential book, Weston questions, interprets, and explains our wars in the Middle East through a tapestry of voices—Iraqi, Afghan, and American—taking readers across California and Fallujah, Khost and Colorado. Along the way we meet generals, corporals, and captains, former Taliban fighters, Afghan schoolteachers, SEAL…
9. Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War (2006)
In 2003, The Washington Post’s Anthony Shadid went to war in Iraq, but not as an embedded journalist. Born and raised in Oklahoma, of Lebanese descent, Shadid, a fluent Arabic speaker, has spent the last three years dividing his time between Washington, D.C., and Baghdad. The only journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for his extraordinary coverage of Iraq, Shadid is also the only writer to describe the human story of ordinary Iraqis weathering the unexpected impact of America’s invasion and occupation. Through the moving stories of individual Iraqis, Shadid shows how Saddam’s downfall…
10. The Gulf War Did Not Happen: Politics, Culture and Warfare Post-Vietnam (Popular Cultural Studies) (1995)
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11. Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War (Yale Library of Military History) (2014)
Surge is an insider’s view of the most decisive phase of the Iraq War. After exploring the dynamics of the war during its first three years, the book takes the reader on a journey to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where the controversial new U.S. Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency doctrine was developed; to Washington, D.C., and the halls of the Pentagon, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff struggled to understand the conflict; to the streets of Baghdad, where soldiers worked to implement the surge and reenergize the flagging war effort before the Iraqi state splintered; and to the halls of…
Best Iraq War Books Everyone Should Read
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Genesis and download some iraq war books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Run to the Sound of the Guns: The True Story of an American Ranger at War in Afghanistan and Iraq
Author(s): Nicholas Moore, Mir Bahmanyar
ID: 2394002, Publisher: Osprey Publishing, Year: 29 Nov 2018, Size: 43 Mb, Format: epub
Going To War With Iraq: A Comparative History Of The Bush Presidencies
Author(s): Joseph M. Siracusa, Laurens J. Visser
ID: 2445157, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2020, Size: 2 Mb, Format: pdf
To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq
Author(s): Robert Draper
ID: 2565148, Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, Year: 2020, Size: 836 Kb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not final. Some books are really chart-busters according to Los Angeles Times, others are drafted by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.