LibGuides: War Literature & Perspectives: Iraq War

About The War

The Iraq War, often referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict that lasted from 2003 to 2011. This war, in addition to the Afghanistan War, was part of the "War on Terror", a global military campaign dedicated to defeating terrorist groups after the 9/11 attacks. The War in Iraq began when a US-led military coalition invaded Iraq to overthrow the government of Saddam Hussein. Hussein was executed in 2006, and his death led to a sectarian civil war between the Shia and Sunni Muslims. In 2011, all US combat troops were withdrawn. There is an estimated 200,000 to one million deaths because of the war, with around 200,000 being Iraqi civilians. Approximately 5,000 US soldiers were killed.

The Iraq War (2003-2011) | CFR
A timeline of the events that occurred leading up to, during, and after the Iraq War.

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
Call Number: PS 3616 .O88348 Y46 2012
ISBN: 9780316219365
Publication Date: 2012-09-11
In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
Call Number: PS3606.O844 | B55 2012
ISBN: 9780060885595
Publication Date: 2012-05-01
A satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq that explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad. Follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
Escape from Baghdad! by Saad Z. Hossain
ISBN: 9781939419248
Publication Date: 2015-03-17
Welcome to Baghdad during the US invasion. A desperate American military has created a power vacuum that needs to be filled. Religious fanatics, mercenaries, occultists, and soldiers are all vying for power. So how do regular folks try to get by? If you're Dagr and Kinza, a former economics professor and a streetwise hoodlum, you turn to dealing in the black market. But everything is about to change, because they have inherited a very important prisoner: the star torturer of Hussein's recently collapsed regime, Captain Hamid, who promises them untold riches if they smuggle him out of Baghdad.
* Can be requested through Interlibrary Loan (linked below)

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Mayada, Daughter of Iraq by Jean Sasson
Call Number: HQ1735.Z75 | A56 2004
ISBN: 0451212924
Publication Date: 2004-09-07
A member of one of the most distinguished and honored families in Iraq, Mayada grew up surrounded by wealth and royalty. But when Saddam Hussein's regime took power, she was thrown into cell 52 in the infamous Baladiyat prison with seventeen other nameless, faceless women from all walks of life. To ease their suffering, these "shadow women" passed each day by sharing their life stories. Now, through Jean Sasson, Mayada is finally able to tell her story--and theirs--to the world.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Call Number: DS79.769 | .C53 2007
ISBN: 9780307278838
Publication Date: 2007-09-04
In this acclaimed firsthand account, the former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post gives us an intimate portrait of life inside this Oz-like bubble, which continued unaffected by the growing mayhem outside. This is a quietly devastating tale of imperial folly, and the definitive history of those early days when things went irrevocably wrong in Iraq.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
Beyond Duty by Shannon Meehan; Roger Thompson (As told to)
Call Number: DS 79.76 .M44 2009
ISBN: 9780745646725
Publication Date: 2009-09-15
Under the blazing Iraqi sun in the summer of 2007, Shannon Meehan, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, ordered a strike that would take the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was protecting his men. He thought that he would only kill the enemy, but in the ruins of the strike, he discovers his mistake and uncovers a tragedy. For most of his deployment in Iraq, Lt. Meehan felt that he had been made for a life in the military. A tank commander, he worked in the violent Diyala Province, successfully fighting the insurgency by various Sunni and Shia factions. He was celebrated by his senior officers and decorated with medals. But when the U.S. surge to retake Iraq in 2006 and 2007 finally pushed into Baqubah, a town virtually entirely controlled by al Qaida, Meehan would make the decision that would change his life.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University