"In this respectful and measured scholarly evaluation, Ashton builds on unprecedented access to the late king's entire correspondence and more than two dozen interviews to lend valuable insight into how Hussein's shrewdness and empathy kept him politically (and literally) alive as well as casting light on many a foreign policy enigma. . . . Timely and relevant."—Publishers Weekly
~Publishers Weekly
"Excellent. . . . Ashton is very interesting on Hussein's relations with Iraq and the wider Arab world."—Patrick Cockburn, New York Times Book Review
~Patrick Cockburn, New York Times Book Review
"Ashton offers a great deal of material to flesh out Hussein's relations with world leaders, the Arab world and Israel, over more than 40 years. It's an elegantly written, engaging narrative. . . . His biography is a valuable contribution to understanding the background of the modern Middle East."—Gila Wertheimer, Chicago Jewish Star
~Gila Wertheimer, Chicago Jewish Star
"A very lucid and careful work. . . . Ashton's crucial contribution—besides his innate fairness—is the sudden and unfettered access he gained to the hitherto closed Royal Hashemite Archives. . . . Ashton's new material fleshes out and finesses history rather than drastically altering it, but it lends Ashton's work a judicious precision and authority."—Colin Thubron, New York Review of Books
~Colin Thubron, New York Review of Books
"A very lucid and careful work. . . . Ashton's crucial contribution—besides his innate fairness—is the sudden and unfettered access he gained to the hitherto closed Royal Hashemite Archives."—Colin Thubron, New York Review of Books
"Ashton provides a respectful and highly credible political biography." —Middle East Journal
~Middle East Journal
'Ashton has provided Middle East watchers with a valuable quarry of material and insights into the life of a ruler who was dealt a weak political hand yet played it with remarkable skill.' — Alan Munro, Middle East International
~Alan Munro, Middle East International
