Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern Baghdad

Contested City offers a history of state-society relations in Baghdad, exploring how city residents managed through periods of economic growth, sanctions, and war, from the oil boom of the 1950s through the withdrawal of US troops in 2011. Interactions between citizens and their rulers shaped the social fabric and political realities of the city. Notably, low-ranking Ba'th party officials functioned as crucial intermediaries, deciding how regime policies would be applied. Charting the social, economic, and political transformations of Iraq's capital city, Alissa Walter examines how national policies translated into action at the local, everyday level. With this book, Walter reveals how authoritarian governance worked in practice. She follows shifts in mid-century housing and urban development, the impact of the Iran–Iraq and Gulf Wars on city life, and the manipulation of food rations and growth of black markets. Reading citizen petitions to the government, Walter illuminates citizens' self-advocacy and the important role of low-ranking party officials and state bureaucrats embedded within neighborhoods. The US occupation and ensuing sectarian fighting upended Baghdad's neighborhoods through violent displacement and the collapse of basic state services. This power vacuum paved the way for new power brokers, including militias and neighborhood councils, to compete for influence on the local level.

Table of Contents:
Introduction I. The Making of Modern Baghdad 1. Slums and Subdivisions 2. Baghdad Becomes a War Zone II. Citizen Advocacy and Local Governance 3. The Weaponization of Food Rations 4. The Politics of Petitions 5. Prostitution and Policing III. Aftermath of the US Invasion 6. Patchwork Power and Essential Services Conclusion

About the Author :
Alissa Walter is Associate Professor of History at Seattle Pacific University.

Review :
"Alissa Walter provides a compelling narrative that weaves the stories of Baghdadi men and women as they manage their lives, shaping and challenging the everyday limitations created by sanctions, political repression, and corruption. Contested City marks a valuable contribution on everyday practices of citizenship in authoritarian and post-authoritarian states in the post-Cold War period." —Dina Rizk Khoury, George Washington University "Analytically nuanced and meticulously researched, Contested City contributes to our understanding of state–society relations during periods of violence. Detailing the impacts of wars and U.S.-imposed sanctions on families, Alissa Walter highlights the ways in which individuals navigated the Ba'thist regime and elevates ordinary Iraqi voices." —Alda Benjamen, University of Dayton "Walter provides both lay and expert readers with a comprehensive account of how Iraqis in Baghdad endured the turbulence of Bathist rule and the collapse of Saddam's regime. She skillfully blends insights about the layout and municipal structure of Baghdad with state–society relations to illustrate how ordinary citizens cooperated with, contended against, and sought autonomy from the regime."—Austin J. Knuppe, The Developing Economies "Contested City offers us a way of thinking about how agency, citizenry and neighbourhoods function under authoritarian rule and in war situations. It challenges simple assumptions about state-society relations in Iraq and offers insight into people's lived reality and how they navigated the challenges in a modern urban city."—Usman Butt, Middle East Monitor