An excellent, well-documented study of the background of the Iraq-Iran war. Events since September 1980 are covered in more summary fashion in the final chapter. Although the author has a surer touch with Iraq than with Iran (which was closed to him anyway), he is reasonably objective, showing the depth of the historic antagonism between the two peoples, and the reasons why the conflict, even if stopped on the battlefield, will continue in one form or another for a long time to come.