Barry M. Rubin (1950–2014)

At the time of the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States, 52 Americans were released from Iran after spending over 400 days as hostages of a radical element of the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s. All of these were captured in the American Embassy, seen by the captors of the 52 as the actual seat of power in Iran since World War II. The Embassy has to this date not been re-established.
This fantastic book provides a detailed and very accessible account of the events that led to the Revolution. It starts with the tension between the British and the Soviets in the closing stages of WWII, and how the intransigence of the British led the Americans to cast in the role of peacemakers. Then with the growing oil wealth, Iran -under almost absolute control of the Shah- started to modernise. However, this modernisation was heavily skewed to military spending, much of which was wilfully wasted. Dissent was poorly managed, corruption was commonplace, and the international press was either blind or compliant. Suddenly conservative (i.e. religious) forces revolted, and after some years of tussling with the moderates, reigned supreme.

Barry Rubin, since deceased, concluded his story with the hostages still in Iran; the updated Penguin edition I read includes their release only in the timeline of events at the end of the book. It's appropriate that it is not included in the story because the revolution has continued to this date, and the relationship between Iran and USA appears not to have progressed in a positive direction since then. Rubin expected this breakdown to last for a couple of decades, as had previous international disputes between countries; but that appears not to be the case.… (más)

This is probably the best book I've had the pleasure of reading on Iran covering the years from the Allied Invasion of neutral Iran in World War 2 to the Islamic Revolution (that is, 1945-1980). Whilst the book covers a lot of ground it's primary focus is on the relations between American and Iran, although it does deal with Britain & Russia where relevant.

Previous to reading this book I only had a cursory understanding of the events leading up to the abdication of the throne by the Shah & the Islamic Revolution. The other books I've read on the topic seem to focus solely on SAVAK (the Shah's secret police) or the revolutionaries without any context. For example it's often put forth that SAVAK was extremely brutal yet in context they were no more so than comparative countries or what replaced them.

The reasons for the fall of the Shah and the success of the Islamic Revolution (as well as the seemingly bumbling response of the American Government) are all addressed within and fairly covered.

If you're looking for a good book that provides context, understanding and a good overview of events I don't think you can go wrong with this. Events are fairly analysed and the positions of both sides are put forth then dissected with facts or deductive reasoning with the reasoning provided.… (más)