This episode of Long Reads is brought to you by Haymarket Books.

One Haymarket title you might enjoy is Art in the Afterculture, capitalist crisis and

cultural strategy by Ben Davis.

Art critic Ben Davis tries to make sense of our extreme present as an emerging afterculture,

a culture that is being radically reshaped by cataclysmic events.

You can find Art in the Afterculture at haymarketbooks.org.

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Hello, you're very welcome to Long Reads, a Jackamon podcast where we look in depth at

political topics and thinkers.

My name's Daniel Finn, and the features editor here at Jackamon, and I'll be presenting

the show.

US troops formally withdrew from Iraq in 2011, but three years later, the Iraqi state

left behind nearly disintegrated, when it had to confront a new challenge.

CBS News spoke about the dramatic rise of ISIS, as if America was the group's main victim.

Islamic militants seized control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city with one and a half

million people.

The group had already taken the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in the West.

US forces spent nearly a decade fighting for control of those cities before withdrawing

two and a half years ago.

In Mosul today, we saw sporadic gunfire and burning military vehicles.

The insurgents seized police stations, banks, and government buildings.

Many Iraqi soldiers dropped their weapons and vanished.

...