The Last Shah
WARNING
You are viewing an older version of the Yalebooks website. Please visit out new website with more updated information and a better user experience: https://www.yalebooks.com
America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty
Ray Takeyh
"An original interpretation that puts Iranian actors where they belong: at center stage."—Michael Doran, Wall Street Journal
“An extraordinary account. . . . Deeply nuanced and eloquent.”—Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post
Offering a new view of one of America’s most important, infamously strained, and widely misunderstood relationships of the postwar era, this book tells the history of America and Iran from the time the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was placed on the throne in 1941 to the 1979 revolution that brought the present Islamist government to power. This revolution was not, as many believe, the popular overthrow of a powerful and ruthless puppet of the United States; rather, it followed decades of corrosion of Iran’s political establishment by an autocratic ruler who demanded fealty but lacked the personal strength to make hard decisions and, ultimately, lost the support of every sector of Iranian society. Esteemed Middle East scholar Ray Takeyh provides new interpretations of many key events—including the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq and the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—significantly revising our understanding of America and Iran’s complex and difficult history.
"For 2,500 years before assaults on embassies, American hostages, proxy wars, and nuclear deals, there was monarchy in Iran. That history ended in the nearly 40-year struggle for the survival of the crown, expertly chronicled by the Council on Foreign Relations’ Ray Takeyh in his new book. . . . Takeyh’s great value is his combination of a comprehensive knowledge of the minutiae of Iranian history with clear analyses of the great debates regarding a nation that has bedeviled foreign-policy experts for decades."—Wilson Shirley, RealClearBooks.com
Publication Date: January 26, 2021