Libya since independence

Many books have examined Libya and its present ruler, yet few have asked how the nation's turbulent past, the way its institutions took shape, and its rise as an oil-based economy together produced a government that treated the idea of a modern state as optional. Drawing on fieldwork across Libya, research in the national archives in Tripoli, and interviews with several of the country's senior decision-makers, Dirk Vandewalle traces the country's political and economic development from its independence in 1951 onward.