The Quest for Modernity in the Middle East and the Islamic World Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq, Eric Davis, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. xi, 385.

The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq, Brendan O'Leary, John McGarry and Khaled Salih, eds., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005, pp. xxi, 355

Nationalism and Minorities Identities in Islamic Societies, Maya Schatzmiller, ed., Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005, pp. xiii, 346

Muslims and Modernity: An Introduction to the Issues and Debates, Clinton Bennett, London, New York: Continuum, 2005, pp. xviii, 286

These four books encapsulate a range of political issues that have shaped the formation of states and ideologies in the Middle East and North Africa since the beginning of the modern encounter between Europe and the Islamic world, from the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt through the post-World War I demise of the Ottoman world up to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.