"History without Documents": The Vexed Archives of Decolonization in the Middle East.

MIDDLE East history; PRESERVATION of historic records; HISTORICAL source material; NASSER, Gamal Abdel, 1918-1970; HISTORY of Iraq, 1979-1991; HISTORY of Iraq, 1991-2003; EGYPTIAN history, 1952-1970; LEBANESE Civil War, 1975-1990; EDUCATION

This roundtable essay on decolonization focuses on the availability of historical source materials to study for countries in the Middle East. Topics include the seizure by U.S. Armed forces of government documents related to the regime of leader Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the dispersal of government documents to holdings of personal friends by Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the lack of historical sources detailing the Lebanese Civil War.