America and Iran

Starred review from July 20, 2020
The hostility between the U.S. and Iran is a tragic lapse from a once-friendly relationship, according to this sweeping study. Historian Ghazvinian (coeditor, American and Muslim Worlds Before 1900) surveys American-Iranian relations back to colonial Americans’ support for Persia in conflicts with the Turks and Tehran’s perennial desire for closer ties to the U.S. as a counterweight against British and Russian domination in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Iranians’ pro-American outlook soured, he contends, when the C.I.A. orchestrated the 1953 coup against liberal nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and then lavished arms on Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s unpopular dictatorship. After the Shah’s overthrow in 1979, Iranian rage and American cluelessness precipitated the U.S. embassy hostage crisis. Ghazvinian blames present-day antagonism mostly on America, arguing that Iran’s conciliatory efforts, from arms-for-hostages initiatives to the Iran nuclear deal, have met with rebuffs, betrayals, and sanctions, as well as on Israel for playing a major role in sabotaging potential rapprochements. Ghazvinian distills much complicated history into a lucid, graceful narrative studded with vivid profiles, including a description of populist president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as “he son of a blacksmith, greasy and disheveled in appearance, so full of godly piety that he rarely dressed in anything more formal than a zip-up windbreaker.” The result is a nuanced, illuminating, and much-needed corrective to one-sided vilifications of Tehran.

August 1, 2020

Iranian-American historian and journalist Ghazvinian (Untapped) traces the history of the relationship between America and Iran dating back from 1720. The book draws on extensive historical documents and archival sources to expand the hidden profiles and personalities of Iranians and Americans who were engaged in fostering relations with one another. At almost 700 pages, this book captures the details of this complex relationship and clearly explains how both countries have been forced to respond to each other positively and harshly based on historical circumstances and conditions. The book is timely and vividly engaging for those trying to understand how both nations have perceived and interacted with each other, as well as with how their relationship became complicated and intense following the hostage crisis in 1979 and, most recently, the murder of Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani in 2020. Ghazvinian's epilog offers hope in building a positive relationship between the two as strategic partners, and the importance of such partnership for the world. VERDICT Readers interested in the history of U.S.-Iran and Middle Eastern politics and history will find Ghazvinian's book to be richly telling and in-depth.--Raymond Pun, Alder Graduate Sch. of Education, CA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2020
An expert on Iran delineates the massive rift between the erstwhile "closest of allies." In this relevant, highly elucidating work, Ghazvinian employs the poetic theme of the changing of seasons as he moves through the evolving relationship between the U.S. and Iran--from "spring," when American colonists indulged in "Persophilia" (a romantic idealization of Persian culture and society) to "winter," the current season, begun when the Islamic Revolution of 1979 brought chants of "death to America." Even before the founding of the U.S., the American colonists were deeply sympathetic to the Persian Empire, for reasons both religious (where Cyrus the Great liberated the Jews from the Babylonian captivity) and political, as the counterweight to the dreaded Ottoman Empire. Ghazvinian shows how the fascination was mutual, and the Founding Fathers even derived some of their ideas from ancient Persian rule. During the second half of the 19th century, the "empire's carcass" was "picked clean" by imperial powers like Russia and the British Empire, and Iran looked to the dynamic U.S. for help repelling colonial plunder and political interference. The defining moment in the relationship came in 1953, with the coup d'etat, engineered by the CIA and MI6, of the popular reformist Mohammad Mosaddeq. Unfortunately, the coup occurred just when Iranians desperately needed the U.S. to help bolster an educated, liberal-minded generation. After that, "Iran would swing violently back down the path of dictatorship, and over the next twenty-five years, the energetic political culture of the 1940s would disappear as activists struggled under the constant surveillance of the shah's secret police." Ghazvinian systematically shows how the revolution and hostage crisis served as payback. Though he left Iran at age 1 and hadn't returned before he started this book, his decadelong, intensive research results in an evenhanded, revelatory narrative in which the author avoids muddying the waters with an overt political agenda. An excellent single-volume history of a fraught international relationship that shows few signs of improvement.

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August 1, 2020
Ghazvinian's concise history of U.S.-Iranian relations highlights cultural affinities and moments of strategic alignment despite decades of conflict and mistrust. Current events books on the topic typically start in 1953, with the rise of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, or in 1979, with his overthrow in the Iranian Revolution. But historian Ghazvinian emphasizes a longer view, noting that the Founding Fathers read Persian history for inspiration and perspective, and nineteenth-century Persians saw in America a model of progressive governance for their own fledgling democracy. By the twentieth century, as Persia was modernizing quickly, and the U.S. was emerging as an international power, they seemed to be natural allies. But power struggles within each and changes in the geopolitical terrain of the Middle East led to a messy divorce and a long, dark winter of mutual hatred. The present situation was not inevitable, says Ghazvinian, who emphasizes the importance and contingency of individual decisions in diplomatic relations. And it could yet be otherwise, he suggests in this informative overview, calling for a serious attempt at reconciliation while acknowledging huge obstacles.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)