Histories of Iraq?

I'm looking for a good history of Iraq. I have a passing knowledge of the formation of the nation from the Sykes-Picot agreement after WW1, but am seeking more in depth knowledge. The current war is all too familiar so nothing there please.

Two recent surveys are A history of Iraq by Charles Tripp and Iraq since 1958 : from revolution to dictatorship by Marion Farouk-Sluglett.

Malcolm Yapp's regional history The Near East since the First World War : a history to 1995 may also be worthwhile. If you are interested in the Ottoman background Yapp also has book on the near east in the long nineteenth century, The making of the modern Near East.

You might also be interested in Iran and Iraq at war by Shahram Chubin

Excellent, thank you.

Dilip Hiro has a series of books which focus on Iraq. They come highly recommended.

Some of these look good too. Thank you.

Tariq Ali's The Clash of Fundamentalisms has some interesting historical chapters on the Iraqi left, and other political movements that rarely make the mainstream histories.

A book that covers the formation of the modern day nation of Iraq is The Creation of Iraq, 1914 - 1921 by Reeva Spector Simon and Eleanor H. Tejirian. It's from Columbia University PRess, and was published in 2004. Unfortunately, is doesn't go beyond the early time frame, but I found it to contain what I was looking for at the moment.

Thank you all for the excellent suggestions.

Not specifically about Iraq, and not as scholarly as some of the books that have been suggested, but A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin gives good insight into, as the subtitle says "the fall of the Ottoman empire and the creation of the modern Middle East." I believe it has been updated since I read it about 15 years ago.

Read that back in the early 90s for a course in Middle Eastern studies but thank you.

A friend of mine was reading that this summer - so I'd heard of that one and its somewhere on my TBR pile as well