Charles Tripp, in his excellent book A History of Iraq, examines the means bywhich the Iraqi state consolidated its position throughout the country in the 20th century and, justas important, how individual Iraqis used “strategies of co-operation, subversion andresistance” (p. 1) to benefit from its services or to combat its ever-increasing power. Whileacknowledging that a number of alternative historical narratives can be studied, Tripp specificallyplaces his analysis within a state-centric framework because of the pivotal role Iraq'sgovernmental institutions and leaders have played in reconfiguring the centers of power in thecountry. As a result of successive governmental activities, the state became the focal point forpolitical power and competition, just as an increasingly narrow group of Iraqis came to hold thereins of that power.