War as Performance: Conflict in Iraq and Political Theatricality. 2018. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
This book examines performance in the context of the 2003 Iraq War and subsequent conflicts with Daesh, or the so-called Islamic State. Working within a theater and performance studies lens, it analyzes adaptations of Greek tragedy, documentary theater, political performances by the Bush administration, protest performances, satiric news television programs, and post-apocalyptic narratives in popular culture. 
By considering performance across genre and media, War as Performance offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of culture, warfare, and militarization, and argues that spectacular and banal aesthetics of contemporary war positions performance as a practice struggling to distance itself from appropriation by the military for violent ends. Contemporary warfare has infiltrated our narratives to such an extent that it holds performance hostage. As lines between the military and performance weaken, this book analyzes how performance responds to and potentially shapes war and conflict in the new century.
REVIEWS
Not only will War as Performance appeal to performance studies, film, and theatre scholars; it will also prove a useful resource for political scientists, historians, and sociologists or psychologists working with veterans or war-traumatized populations. Mantoan draws on high-level critical theory, but her explanations of complex concepts are consistently clear enough that the book will be comprehensible for those less versed in performance theory. This book does an excellent job filling a critical hole left by existing examinations of the theatricality of terrorism; Mantoan shows that the performative elements of the Iraq War were unique and deserving of critical attention. -Phillip Napkin, review in The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism (36.1, Fall 2021)
“Given the paucity of anglophone scholarship about Iraqi theatre, War as Performance is a significant contribution to the discipline of theatre studies that provides an outline of Iraqi theatre post-2003 (particularly in chapter 4). It joins a considerable body of literature published by US scholars and the coalition nations that attempt to understand how they should (or could) have responded to the violence in the Iraq War committed in their names.” –Hadeel Abdelhameed, review in Theatre Research International (45:3)
“Mantoan’s approach stands out for the attention she pays both to plays that engage Iraqi experience and to the fate of Iraqi theatre itself. Her performance analysis is especially attuned to the gendered consequences of the war and how ram- pant sexual assault within the US military made a mockery of the already dubious claim that the Coalition of the Willing sought to “liberate” women in Iraq.” –Michael Shane Boyle’s review in TDR: The Drama Review (243)
Lindsey Mantoan, Ph.D. 