The Life and Times of the Shah

November 17, 2008
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s ruler from 1941 to 1979—and one of the 20th century’s more controversial political figures—gets a spirited if not always compelling defense in this sprawling biography. Afkhami (The Iranian Revolution
), an Iranian studies scholar and an official of the shah’s regime, paints him as a moderate, progressive leader who championed women’s rights, secularism and balanced economic development. He was his own man, not an American puppet, Afkhami argues, strenuously challenging interpretations of the 1953 ousting of the nationalist prime minister, Mohammad Mossadeq, as a CIA-engineered coup. And the crimes of his notorious SAVAK secret police, the author contends, were milder than commonly thought—and anyway, the shah knew little about them. Afkhami corrects conventional views of the shah’s reign as merely a despotic prelude to the Islamic revolution, but his perspective seems blinkered by his subject’s self-regard. The shah emerges as almost a paragon—devoted to his people and Iran’s constitution, undone by his own misguided humanity and restraint in confronting Khomeini’s cabal of Islamists and their liberal dupes. When all Iran rises to overthrow him, the reader is as surprised as the shah. Photos.

December 15, 2008
Even those writers who have been deeply hostile to the Iranian Revolution seldom display positive feelings for the displaced shah, Reza Pahlavi. Afkhami, currently senior scholar at the Foundation for Iranian Studies and a former Iranian government official, producesa largely sympathetic biography providing some balance to what has often been a negative historical image. Afkhami acknowledges the shahs personal shortcomings, including his insecurity and his tendency to ignore legitimate criticisms of his policies. Yet he maintains that the shah was mild mannered, gentle, and generally sought to govern by consensus. The author convincingly illustrates the great achievements of the shahs White Revolution, including greateconomic growth and advancement of the rights of women. Unfortunately, this was a revolution imposed from above, and the rapid changes were unsupported by institutions that could have made them more palatable to an essentially conservative society. A comprehensive and well-researched reexamination of a well-meaning but tragic figure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)