New Jersey: John Wiley, 2004. First edition - This book 'chronicles the dramatic and tragic history of a land long the center of world commerce and conflict. Tracing the involvement of Western governments and militaries, as well as oil, banking, and other corporate interests in Iraq, Black reveals that today, just as throughout modern history, the world needs Iraq's resources-and remains committed to acquiring and protecting them. .. Black does not shy away from the uncomfortable truth that foreign governments, including our own, have playe a role in the Iraq we know today. He documents a long record of war profiteering...' As he comments at the end of the book 'the policymakers knew that what was at stake was more the freedom of a few million people in Iraq; it was the prize beneath their feet.' An important and very timely book, well-documented with very extensive notes and references (almost 75 pages). 449 pp.

Los Angeles: Powell Publishing Company, (1929.). Hardcover first edition - An economic history of the state dealing with agriculture, petroleum resources, water and power, and the financing of the growth, or to quote the preface: "This volume deals with the material progress of California. It seeks to describe that progress as accurately and dispassionately as possible, and to avoid loose generalizations and willful exaggeration. It is not designed to serve as a handbook for the sale of California real estate. The size of the state, its rich and varied resources, and the unusual lines along which its economic development has proceeded, eminently justify an authentic study of this kind. In the transformation of any region from a wilderness to an empire-in the coming of settlers, the planting of fields, the opening of mines, the felling of forests, the building of cities, the operation of factories, the interplay of commerce, the growth of population-there is not only fascination and human interest; there is also the most genuine stuff of which history can be made." A title in the series 'Calfornia' under the general editorship of John Russell McCarthy. Very attractively illustrated with woodcuts by Aries Fayer. Page with printed signatures of California pioneers - 'covered wagon babies' who were born on the trail in 1848, 1849 or the 1850's. Also includes several appendices dealing with Mexican Land Grants, statistical charts, many maps. Index. 322 pp .