A brisk, well-informed analysis of the present situation in Iraq in the context of Iraqi history from Babylonian and Assyrian antecedents, Mongol invasion, British rule, to U.S. policy. A professor of history at the University of Chicago and Harvard, an Arabic and Turkish speaker and member of the State Department policy staff, William Polk is an excellent guide to the history of Iraq. His book is ambitiously subtitled The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, From Genghis Khan's Mongols To The Ottoman Turks To The British Mandate To The American Occupation.  (IRQ14, $13.99)