The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War
Faith, Firepower, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards

An examination of how Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) view their history and their roles in the Iran-Iraq War.

Annie Tracy Samuel (Author)

9781108478427, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 October 2021

322 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.62 kg

'… a valuable monograph not only for students of the contemporary Middle East, Iran, and the IRGC, but for anyone with an interest in historiography, narrative construction, and military history, at large. … Tracy Samuel's book challenges [the traditional] narrative through a meticulous study of the IRGC's war historiography. … [it] will be an undeniable resource for future research … In addition to laying the grounds for an engaged study of sources produced in Iran, The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War offers an important analytical path forward.' Maryam Alemzadeh, International Journal of Middle East Studies

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), founded after the Iranian revolution in 1979, is one of the most powerful and prominent but least understood organizations in Iran. In this book, Annie Tracy Samuel presents an innovative and compelling history of this organization and, by using the Iran-Iraq War as a focal point, analyzes the links between war and revolution. Tracy Samuel provides an internal view of the IRGC by examining how the Revolutionary Guards have recorded and assessed the history of the war in the massive volume of Persian language publications produced by the organization's top members and units. This not only enhances our comprehension of the IRGC's roles and power in contemporary Iran, but also demonstrates how the history of the Iran-Iraq War has immense bearing on the Islamic Republic's present and future. In doing so, the book reveals how analyzing Iran's history provides the critical tools for understanding its actions today.

1. Introduction
2. Guards: the establishment of the IRGC
3. Historians: the IRGC's history of the Iran-Iraq war
4. Striking while the Revolution's hot: the causes of the Iran-Iraq war
5. Willing and unable: Iran confronts the Iraqi invasion
6. The epic of Khorramshahr: Iran in the war from occupation to liberation
7. Pursuing the aggressor: Iran's invasion of Iraq
8. War for peace: the Iran-Iraq war, 1985-1987
9. An end to a war without end: the Iran-Iraq war, 1987-1988
10. Faith and firepower: Iran's prosecution of the Iran-Iraq war
11. The holy defense continues: the Iran-Iraq war and Iran's national security
12. Unfinished history: the IRGC and the Holy Defense Research and Documentation Center since the war
13. Keeping the war alive: the IRGC's commitment to writing the history of the Iran-Iraq war.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Military history [HBW], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]