William R. Polk (1929–2020)
Author of Understanding Iraq
About the Author
William R. Polk served in the Kennedy administration where he supervised American policy on the Islamic world and was a member of the Crisis Management Committee during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As professor of history at the University of Chicago, he established the Center for Middle Eastern show more Studies. Later, as president of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, he helped to organize the "Table Ronde" meeting that laid the groundwork for the European Union and worked on nuclear weapons issues for the Pugwash organization. He was called back to the White House during the 1967 Middle Eastern War to write a draft Peace Treaty and to act as advisor to U.S. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy. A senior director of the W.P. Carey Foundation, he lives in Vence, France. show less
Works by William R. Polk
Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq (2007) 122 copies
Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad (2009) 80 copies
Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North (2018) 55 copies
The Opening of South Lebanon, 1788-1840; A Study of the Impact of The West on the Middle East (1963) 7 copies
Associated Works
Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt (Phoenix Books) (1969) — Foreword, some editions — 100 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Polk, William R.
- Legal name
- Polk, William Roe
- Birthdate
- 1929-03-07
- Date of death
- 2020-04-06
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Fort Worth, Texas, USA
- Place of death
- Vence, France
- Education
- Harvard University (BA ∙ PhD)
University of Oxford (BA ∙ MA) - Occupations
- historian
university professor
Middle East envoy - Organizations
- Council on Foreign Relations
University of Chicago
Harvard University
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 27
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 843
- Popularity
- #30,327
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 11
- ISBNs
- 54
- Languages
- 2