Libya: The History Of Gaddafi's Pariah State

by John Oakes

When the oil-rich Kingdom of Libya descended into corruption and irresolution, a young Libyan army officer named Muammar Gaddafi seized power in a brilliant coup on 1 September 1969. Under his rule Libya became a pariah state, harbouring terrorists from nearly every dissident group in the world and accumulating an enormous arsenal of lethal weaponry. The late Gaddafi was autocratic and cruel, and his people finally rose up against him in February 2011. But how did he survive for so long? In this book John Oakes traces Libya's colourful history and details the events which shaped Gaddafi's personality, the influences which moulded his career, the security apparatus which kept him in power and the human rights violations he committed. It is a story of Roman legions, Barbary pirates, slave traders, camel caravans and Ottoman Beys. Of Italian colonists, Bedouin tribes, Texan oil barons, the Lockerbie disaster and mass murder in the Abu Salim jail. Most poignantly, it is the story of the human cost of freeing Libya from Gaddafi.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2011

Reviews

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: death, war, violence, colonialism, racism, dictatorship, public execution

2.5 stars.

I was really interested to read this because as much as I grew up knowing Gaddafi's name, I know very little about his regime and the impact on Libya as a whole. Unfortunately(?), this turned out to be a history of Libya as a whole rather than focusing on the Gaddafi era. And while it WAS interesting to learn about the Roman colonisation of Libya, the medieval period, the impact of World War II etc etc, what I WANTED was more about Libya's recent history.

Once I did finally get to the Gaddafi era, I essentially got an entire chapter about Gaddafi's background and childhood, a chapter about Libyan terrorist attacks in the UK (particularly Lockerbie), and then a chapter on Gaddafi's fall, particularly focusing on his execution. And, like, I wanted more about the impact on the country and the population, you know?

So yeah. It's less than 200 pages, but I think it suffers from a) the author trying to cover the WHOLE of Libya's history and b) the author being British and having been stationed in Libya, resulting in a tendency to tell the country's history from a colonising perspective.

[Zahra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good for anyone who wants to have a small glance at Libya's history. As a Libyan, I find this book very organized yet misses a lot of details of the rich history of Libya. In general, this small book, summarizes the different civilizations, colonization, independence, and the state of dictatorship and finishes up with the revolution (but misses a lot of other details that I, as Libyan, think is more than important to be included in every Libyan history book ). It is very interesting and I really encourage Libyans to read it first thing if they are interested in their rich Libyan history to realize how precious this beautiful Libya is. and defiantly, encourage to read other more books afterwards.

[Debjit Sengupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had purchased kindle edition of the book. I was looking for something on Colonel Gaddafi but the book was more on Libya than an exclusive coverage on his life. It gives an account of pre and post Gaddafi era. Libya is mostly populated with myriad number of tribes with each concerned more with parochial than national issues. So, ruling them under a common banner is always a herculean task. These diverse groups with questionable loyalty were always a bane for Colonel Gaddafi. Though he indulged in lot of welfare schemes and did improve standard of living of citizen but discontentment remained for various reasons. He ruled for more than 4 decades. His opulent life style, rampant corruption his government indulged in and arrest of those whom he suspected left large section of the population furious. To add to his woes, his bizarre statements based on dogma and collusion with militants alienated him in the international community. Even other Arab and African country were wary of his radicalism and decided to maintain a distance. Uprising in neighboring countries against the ruling group was a premonition which he could not intercept. Colonel Gaddafi was openly critical of western powers, something a nation can ill-afford to do so especially after collapse of Soviet Union. He had to pay it heavily. The economic sanction hit Libya badly. Ultimately, the combination of factors led to his downfall.

Some interesting trivia from the book:
a) Gaddafi was studying history when he dropped out to join army, which was trained by British military
b) Gaddafi was rude to English officers, refused to learned English and repeatedly failed his exams
c) King Idris led the first government after independence from Italy
d) Post independence, discovery of oil changed Libya’s fortune
e) When King Idris was abroad, Colonel Gaddafi staged a bloodless coup to throw the monarchy
f) Colonel Gaddafi nationalized oil production company , resulting in astronomical increase in GDP
g) Colonel Gaddafi supported many militant outfit financially, the most notable being Irish Republican Army(IRA)
h) Libya’s relation with British broke off after a British police women was shot dead outside Libyan embassy in London;
i) It’s was alleged that Libya had a hand in blowing up Pan Am Flight in Scotland where all passenger and crew were dead
j) After renouncing his nuclear ambition, Colonel Gaddafi commented that technology had come from nuclear bazaar in Pakistan
k) There was also uprising in Egypt and Tunisia just prior to Libyan protesters took to street
l) Education, electricity and medical service was free and petrol was cheap under Colonel Gaddafi regime

The book was informative but still lacked depth. Gaddafi arrived in the scene only after 50% of the book was completed. You crave for detail in some places but it was missing. There is no mention of how he died or who killed him. However, the book was racy in pace and some additional detail in another 40-50 pages could have qualified it for a decent rating.

[Omar Amer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads more like a brief history of Libya as opposed to Gaddafi and his Pariah state. Starting from the Greeks and Romans to the present post 17th Revolution. I did enjoy reading about the last 2,000 years in Libya in 186 pages, there were a few minor errors and inaccuracies in the book which bothered me a little. However, I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a quick and easy understanding of why Libya is the way it is today.

[Heba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two and a half stars.