Polk, William R. 1929–

(William Roe Polk)

PERSONAL:

Born March 7, 1929, in Fort Worth, TX; son of George Washington and Adelaide Polk; married Joan Cooledge, December 15, 1950 (divorced December, 1960); married Ann Cross, June 9, 1962 (divorced 1975); married Baroness Elisabeth von Oppenheimer, December 29, 1981; children: (first marriage) Milbry Catherine, Alison Elizabeth; (second marriage) George W. IV, Eliza Forbes. Education: Attended University of Chile, 1945-46; Harvard University, B.A. (Magna Cum Laude), 1951, Ph.D., 1958; American University of Beirut, graduate study, 1951-52; Oxford University, B.A. (honors), 1955, M.A., 1959.

ADDRESSES:

Home—France.

CAREER:

Writer, historian, editor, and educator. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, assistant professor of Middle Eastern studies, 1955-61; U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, member of Policy Planning Council, 1961-65; University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, professor of Middle Eastern history and founder and director of Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 1965-74; Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, Chicago, president, 1967-73. Currently senior director, W.P. Carey Foundation. Advisory editor, Beacon Press, 1956-60; senior editor and member of board of directors, Arlington Books, Inc., 1959-61. Lecturer in United States and abroad. Member of board of directors of Hyde Park Bank & Trust Co., Microfilm Data System, Moore International, Rabia Ltd., and W.P. Carey Foundation

MEMBER:

Council on Foreign Relations, Middle East Institute (member of board of governors, 1962—), Middle East Studies Association of North America (member of board of directors), Academy on Public Policy (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Four Rockefeller Foundation fellowships, 1951-55; Guggenheim fellowship, 1961-62.

WRITINGS:

What Arabs Think (published with American Business and the Arab World by W. Jack Butler), Foreign Policy Association (New York, NY), 1952.

(With David M. Stamler and Edmund Asfour) Backdrop to Tragedy: The Struggle for Palestine, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1957.

(Editor, with others) Studies on the Civilization of Islam, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1962.

(Editor and author of introduction) Developmental Revolution: North Africa, Middle East, South Africa, Middle East Institute (Washington, DC), 1963.

The Opening of South Lebanon, 1788-1840: A Study of the Impact of the West on the Middle East, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1963.

The United States and the Arab World, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1965, 5th edition published as The Arab World Today, 1991.

(Editor, with Richard L. Chambers) Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East: The Nineteenth Century, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1968.

Passing Brave, Knopf (New York, NY), 1972.

(Translator and author of introduction) The Golden Ode, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1974.

The Elusive Peace: The Middle East in the Twentieth Century, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1979.

Neighbors and Strangers: The Fundamentals of Foreign Affairs, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1997.

Polk's Folly: An American Family History, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2000.

Understanding Iraq: The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

The Birth of America: From before Columbus to the Revolution, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

(With George S. McGovern) Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2006.

Also editor of and contributor to Perspective of the Arab World, 1956. Contributor to a report, "Ideology and Foreign Affairs," prepared for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Contributor to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Foreign Affairs Quarterly, the Atlantic, and other journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author, historian, and educator William R. Polk is an internationally recognized expert on Middle Eastern affairs. Polk's professional affiliations have included Harvard University and the University of Chicago, as well as the U.S. Department of State. His book-length assessment of the Middle East, published as The Arab World Today, has been published in five editions since it was first printed in 1965. Polk's Neighbors and Strangers: The Fundamentals of Foreign Affairs was deemed "a wise, learned, and graceful work" by David C. Hendrickson in Foreign Affairs. Hendrickson further called the book "a superb introduction to the origin and logic of the principal areas of transaction among political collectives—defense, trade, espionage, and diplomacy." In Library Journal, James Holmes characterized Neighbors and Strangers as "a lively and thought-provoking account strongly recommended for academic libraries."

Polk is a member of a distinguished American family of Scotch-Irish origin that includes former president James K. Polk and a host of other military, academic, and business leaders. In Polk's Folly: An American Family History, the author profiles his forebears from the earliest immigrants—who landed in Maryland in 1680—to his brother, a journalist who was murdered in 1948. In between, Polk documents his family's success as plantation owners; James K. Polk's commendable presidency, during which the United States won the Mexican War; and Polk family contributions to the Civil War in both the Union and Confederate armies. To quote David Herbert Donald in the New York Times Book Review, Polk "demonstrates that the Polks are an underestimated clan, whose members have been involved in nearly every stage of American development and have participated with bravery and determination in every one of the country's wars." Noting that the earliest American generations of the Polk family are not well-documented, and that other generations failed to keep good records of themselves, Donald cited William R. Polk for his attempts to reconstruct his ancestors' lives based upon histories of what was happening around them. "His method has enabled him to produce a spirited, broad-scale saga of an American family we ought to remember," Donald declared. Library Journal correspondent Dale F. Farris likewise praised Polk for his "passionate search for notables in his complex family tree," concluding that Polk's Folly is "a fascinating, entertaining saga that illuminates American history."

A former U.S. State Department advisor, Polk is interested in international affairs, particularly those involving Iraq and U.S. involvement in that embattled country. In Understanding Iraq: The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation, Polk outlines Iraqi history from ancient times to the present, with considerable attention paid to defining eras in the country's history. He discusses the earliest history of Iraq and its development into an Islamic state. He looks at the British influence during the years from 1917 to 1958; at the development of revolutionary Iraq from 1958 to 1991, when it was ruled by military leaders such as Saddam Hussein; and the most recent shift in the country's identity, American Iraq, from 1991 to the present. Polk also considers Iraq's future as it emerges from the turmoil of war, political upheaval, and outside interference. "The thrust of Mr. Polk's history lesson is not gentle: America is blundering in Iraq out of historical ignorance," observed a commentator in the Economist. Reviewer Fred Rhodes, writing in the Middle East, noted that "Understanding Iraq is an important book, spelling out the lessons of history in a compelling and absorbing narrative." Foreign Affairs reviewer L. Carl Brown called Polk's book a "sober and informed account of Iraq's history, culminating in a compelling critique of the U.S. intervention there." Polk's six-decade career in diplomatic and academic circles "grants him unique authority on his subject and puts this book head and shoulders above other analyses," commented Brendan Driscoll in Booklist. A Kirkus Reviews commentator called Polk's work on Iraq "learned, constantly engaging and full of pointed lessons for those wondering why the war has not ended, peace has not come, and no one in Iraq save Halliburton seems liberated."

In keeping with his attitudes and scholarly interests in Iraq, Polk has also helped craft suggestions for America's withdrawal from the difficult and worsening situation in that country. Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now, written with former Democratic senator and presidential candidate George S. McGovern, contains a detailed, phased withdrawal plan designed to allow America to withdraw from Iraq within six months. Polk and McGovern criticize the American occupation of Iraq as scandalously wasteful of lives and resources, damaging to the American economy and irreversibly destructive to the members of the military who have served there. They strongly disagree with Republican desires to "stay the course" in Iraq, noting that American presence there increases the likelihood of terrorist attacks on U.S. concerns. Polk and McGovern endorse an immediate withdrawal of troops and resources. Their plan includes a two-year commitment to help Iraq rebuild; the training and deployment of a national Iraqi police force; and the establishment of a U.S. embassy to start rebuilding relations with Iraq. Library Journal reviewer Nader Entessar called Polk and McGovern's work a "crisp and cogently argued book," and "essential reading for anybody who wants to cut through the maze of confusion" around U.S. policy in Iraq.

With The Birth of America: From before Columbus to the Revolution, Polk offers a history of the earliest days of the United States in a "fluent account of British America from colonization to the imperial crisis of the 1760s and 1770s," commented Gilbert Taylor in Booklist. Polk carefully considers the physical realities and hardships of early colonization, and makes clear distinctions between those colonists who came willingly from Europe and those who were forced here as slaves from Africa. He discusses issues such as colonial conflicts with native populations, the establishment of working economies in the new world, commerce-based and slave-based economic systems, and the beginning of the American Revolution. Polk's work is "packed with impeccable scholarship and insightful analysis," commented a Kirkus Reviews critic. A Publishers Weekly contributor called Polk "a masterful storyteller who takes us into a strange world and helps us to understand it."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2005, Brendan Driscoll, review of Understanding Iraq: The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation, p. 1427; February 15, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Birth of America: From before Columbus to the Revolution, p. 34; October 15, 2006, Vanessa Bush, review of Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now, p. 19.

Choice, January, 2006, C.E. Farah, review of Understanding Iraq, p. 914.

Economist, July 2, 2005, review of Understanding Iraq, p. 74.

Foreign Affairs, spring, 1981, John C. Campbell, review of The Arab World, p. 960; March-April, 1998, David C. Hendrickson, review of Neighbors and Strangers: The Fundamentals of Foreign Affairs, p. 150; May-June, 2005, L. Carl Brown, review of Understanding Iraq, p. 148.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2005, review of Understanding Iraq, p. 280; February 1, 2006, review of The Birth of America, p. 124.

Library Journal, September 1, 1997, James Holmes, review of Neighbors and Strangers, p. 201; January, 2000, Dale F. Farris, review of Polk's Folly: An American Family History, p. 133; October 15, 2006, Nader Entessar, review of Out of Iraq, p. 76.

Middle East, March 21, 2005, review of Understanding Iraq, p. 47; January, 2006, Fred Rhodes, review of Understanding Iraq, p. 64.

Middle East Journal, autumn, 2006, Judith S. Yaphe, review of Understanding Iraq, p. 802.

New York Times Book Review, January 16, 2000, David Herbert Donald, "A Family Affair," review of Polk's Folly, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, January 9, 2006, review of The Birth of America, p. 40.

ONLINE

Blogcritics,http://www.blogcritics.org/ (May 9, 2006), review of Understanding Iraq.

History News Network Web site,http://hnn.us/ (June 19, 2006), interview with William R. Polk.

Informed Comment,http://www.juancole.com/ (May 26, 2004), biography of William R. Polk.

William R. Polk Home Page, http://www.williampolk.com (January 10, 2007).