This work is a follow-up to Michael Gunter's earlier book, The Kurds of Iraq: Tragedy and Hope (St. Martin's Press, 1992). In that book, which was published shortly after the first democratic elections in Iraqi Kurdistan and the subsequent establishment of the Kurdish regional government (KRG), Gunter was somewhat optimistic about the prospects for realizing Kurdish national aspirations in Iraq. The book under review, however, strikes a more pessimistic tone based on political developments in Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1990s. The main focus of the book is on the causes of continuing conflict between the two major Iraqi Kurdish parties—namely, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—since the end of the 1991 Gulf War and the establishment of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The author uses a variety of sources, including interviews with principal Kurdish players and English-language publications.