Rating: 
Summary: Accurate view of the world, as proposed by reform camp.
Review: Today, with the cultural pendulum seemingly going full swing away from Islamic Iran towards Persian Iran, I thought I should spend a weekend recapping my knowledge of Persian Culture and Shia religion. What is in the first 1/3 of the book is, I believe, an accurate reflection of both.I found fault in the second third of the book in just one area. The author has a difficulty or inability to say that Shah Mohammed Reza did any good at all! She begrudgingly acknowledges his liberal policies, though gives credit to the US government for them, and makes the last 2 decades of Pahlavi reign seem like the last 9 months, namely a regime with a dying icon and a crisis of leadership. It all became clear reading the last third of the book. The author must have some personal relationship with the offices of Rafsanjani / Khatami, and is whistling their tune. The mood on the street at the time the book was written may have given the "farr" to the moderate Rafsanjani, but he has since been discredited for his secret murder campaigns. The mood at the time the after-word was written may have been in favor of the moderate Khatami, but that is changing also, after the cheating and duplicity (good cop, bad cop games) of all the leadership of the Islamic Republic has becomes apparent. In promoting the Islamic Reformist camp, the author is obliged to write in a way that suggest the path taken in the Islamic revolution, being a reaction to Pahlavi rule and Western monkey business, was inevitable. This false premise leads one to think the current status-quo is inevitable and should be respected, and further assisted. In any case it is a good book all in all. Here are a few minor factual errors that the author might want to change in future re-prints: (p175) he ranked as the largest landowner - wrong the government became largest landowner. (p224) it's publication gave Khomeini status of Ayatollah - very wrong, he became Ayatollah after recommendation by clerics as a technical solution to prevent his execution at the instigation of Pakravan (ex-head of SAVAK) (p242) historically, Iranian side of Shatt Al-Arab marked Iran-Iraq border. Not historically, only since the British drew the line half a century earlier. (p255) man who commanded no authority other than military/SAVAK. Wrong and deceitful. This is what the revolutionaries keep telling us. The strength of public support for the Shah in the 1960's and early 70's was visibly no less than that for Khomeini in 1979 or Mossadeg in 1953. Policies that lead to this change in popularity is the key to Iranian character and cultural identity that I was hoping to read about. (p261) Showy, empty development projects. What's that suppose to mean? 20 nuclear reactors, largest petrochemical industry in world, largest steel furnaces in the world, industrial-military complex, all this basic infrastructure and growth in excess of Malaysia/South Korea is empty development? (p286) Bakhtiar assassinated by unknown assailants. Wrong they were very well known and linked with Rafsanjani, the authors friend it seems.(p299) flag of Pahlavi Iran. Wrong, Pahlavi's had no flag of their own. (p346) Yasser road is one mile up, not down from Niavaran.
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