ABOUT THIS BOOK

This searing collection reveals how the plunder of Iraq’s heritage during the 2003 invasion was not collateral damage but part of a long history of imperial erasure.

In War Essays, Zainab Bahrani delivers a powerful reckoning of the destruction of Iraq’s cultural heritage in the wake of the 2003 invasion by weaving together personal experience and a critique of the enduring colonial practices of archaeology. Across two decades of essays, she examines the war’s devastating impact not only on human lives but also on Iraq’s historical landscapes, monuments, and memory, situating heritage loss within the broader geopolitics of the Middle East.

Bahrani confronts the prevailing narratives about the war, exposing how imperial violence extends beyond the battlefield to target history itself and reshaping the discipline of archaeology. By combining eyewitness testimony with theoretical inquiry, this book reflects on the role of intellectuals and historians in times of war and interrogates the responsibility of those who document conflict and its aftermath. Essential reading for scholars of Middle Eastern studies and archaeology, War Essays offers a unique and deeply personal perspective on the lasting scars of war and the fragile relationship between history and memory.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Zainab Bahrani is the Edith Porada Professor and Chair of the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University in New York. She is also the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed Rituals of War and The Infinite Image.

REVIEWS

"In this volume of powerful and important essays Zainab Bahrani bears witness to an ongoing and brutal chapter in Iraq’s history, and the constellations of imperial narratives and compounded injuries that actively participated in the 2003 Iraq War and its aftermath, continuing into the present."

— Kim Benzel, Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Bahrani’s book reveals the long-lasting impact of the US and British invasion of Iraq, particularly its cultural destruction and cleansing. Her fieldwork and writing offer an erudite view, filling a critical gap in the study of Iraq's contemporary history. It is a must-read for students and scholars of Iraqi studies."

— Tareq Ismael, University of Calgary

"Assembling reflections on the 2003 Iraq War and its aftermath, over a period of two decades, Zainab Bahrani deploys her deep knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia to shed light on the nature of modern warfare and its multi-sited confrontations with the material remains of the past. From university campuses to UNESCO, and from local sites of destruction to the global trade in illicit antiquities, this book offers a timely intervention delivered from a unique vantage point, in the eye of the storm."

— David Wengrow, UCL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of figures
Acknowledgements
Cover illustration: artist's note

Introduction: Twenty years after Operation Iraqi Freedom

Part I: War in Iraq
Preface
1 Looting and conquest
2 The scholar as activist
3 The Iraq War
4 In the fray: British and Swiss get tough about smuggling
5 Days of plunder
6 Iraq’s cultural heritage: monuments, history and loss
7 The destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq
Plate section 1: Figures 1-17

Part II: Military occupation and archaeological discourse
Preface
8 Babylon: a case study in the military occupation of an archaeological site
9 The battle for Babylon (2006)
10 The battle for Babylon (2008)
11 Desecrating history
12 October questionnaire
13 Archaeology and the strategies of war

Part III: Aftermath: erasing/writing
Preface
14 Archaeology, global cultural heritage and Iraq
15 Tabula rasa
16 Amnesia in Mesopotamia
Plate section 2: Figures 18-34

Part IV: ISIS/Daesh
Preface
17 The absent past: heritage destruction and historical erasure today
18 Destruction and preservation as aspects of just war
19 Blood antiquities and the global art market
20 Decolonising the museum
21 Technologies of power in archaeology
22 Historical destruction in a forgotten war
23 Mosul and Niniveh
24 Conclusion: Warfare, creative destruction, and the politics of preservation

Index