Churchill, Eisenhower, and the Making of the Modern World

Praise for Churchill's Folly: This compelling volume raises eerie echoes of present-day Iraq. In the aftermath of WWI, France and Britain competed for the Mideastern leftovers of the Ottoman Empire... Catherwood... sees contemporary parallels in the unlearned lessons of 'imperial overreach.' Unwanted paternalistic protectorates have a way of imploding, Catherwood notes. Churchill conceded wryly that Britain was spending millions 'for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having.' In a readable historical essay stretched into a short book, Catherwood demonstrates yet again that one generation's pragmatism can be a later generation's tragedy. -- Publishers Weekly How did things get so messy in Mesopotamia? In part, because of Iraq's founding at the hands Winston Churchill, 'undoubtedly brilliant but utterly lacking in any kind of judgment.' An impressive study on the making of modern Iraq, with all its crises and catastrophes. -- Kirkus Reviews Catherwood is an excellent guide at cutting through the mythology that surrounds this subject. --The Guardian