ABSTRACT
I embarked on trying to find out whether the Iraqi democratic experiment has faltered. If yes, why has it, and what are the reasons or circumstances that led to its failure. The way ahead was to look at documentary evidence and conduct interviews. I needed to know if certain historical events have actually influenced current ones. Some historical events are distant and there are no living people to ask about them. So, when dealing with the ‘dead past’, I needed to consult memoirs and books by former politicians or academics, newspapers and journal articles. At one point, I wanted to interview a living minister from the monarchy era, Abdul-Kareem Al-Uzri. He was in his nineties, but his family said he was not in a position to be interviewed. Instead they gave me his book, which proved to be useful.7
