Ahmadinejad: The Secret History of Iran's Radical Leader [Hardcover]

Kasra Naji (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2008

As Iran's nuclear program accelerates, all eyes are on the blacksmith's son who could have his finger on the trigger. Who is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? What drives him? To whom, if anyone, does he answer? Internationally acclaimed Iranian journalist Kasra Naji has spent years interviewing Ahmadinejad's friends, family, and colleagues to tell for the first time the true story of how he came to power. What emerges in this riveting account, featuring never before published color photographs, is a picture of a man who is much more of a force to be reckoned with than the caricatures offered up so far suggest. While Naji documents Ahmadinejad's often strange behavior, he also shows him to be full of complex contradictions: a man gripped by apocalyptic beliefs, yet capable of switching spiritual allegiance in the quest for power. A man tough enough to fight street battles in the name of Ayatollah Khomeini, crude enough to invite the German chancellor to join him in an anti-Jewish alliance, yet sophisticated enough to win the support of the all-powerful Revolutionary Guard. Kasra Naji takes us inside the shadowy council chambers of Tehran, and shows us the plots, passions, and personalities that will influence Ahmadinejad's next move, while the world waits with bated breath.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A critical and revealing biography of Iran's controversial president."--New York Review of Books

From the Inside Flap

"An excellent biography, one that is lively and informative, and at the same time sets the President in his international and domestic contexts. In so doing, Naji provides a most informative portrait of Iran today, and of the many, conflicting, forces that are at play within it."--Fred Halliday, author of 100 Myths about the Middle East

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520256638
• ISBN-13: 978-0520256637
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #965,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read September 7, 2008

By Potkin

Format:Hardcover

This is not a detailed biography with ins and outs of Ahmadi-nejad's entire personal life story up to now, if you want to read a biography of Ahmadi-nejad you may have to wait until something like that is written some time in the future. However, if you want to be updated with a factual account of what is going on in Iran now and who runs the Islamic Republic, reading this book is a must!

It is one of the best explanations I have read in English on what Islamic Republic elections are about ....
[...]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing immediacy, with a disturbing analysis. April 4, 2012

By T. G. S. Hawksley

Format:Hardcover

Some of the finest writers about Iran's politics such as Ray Takeyh or Vali Nasr are, without doubt, experts in their field - but they live in America. Right from the start of this book, with its vivid descriptions of a distraught and dusty Ahmadinejad burying his father, you sense the author is not only a complete master of his subject, but he has been close to the events he is writing about.

Much of the material such as the reverence for the missing Mahdi, the holocaust denial conference, the erratic economic policies, or the rambling letters to Bush and Merkel are familiar from the general media, but because Naji was in Iran while it happened, the picture has a refreshing immediacy. Naji was certainly an eye witness on the opening day of the holocaust denial conference - `Nowhere else in the world could you find such a mixed bag: American white supremacists, European Nazis, fundamentalist Muslims and ultra-orthodox anti Zionist Jews milled around, exchanging handshakes and smiles.' And as he wandered around the centre he lets us know about a model of Auschwitz which was on display, proving large numbers of Jews could not have been killed. He is also thorough, but concise, with his background material throughout the book, so for the conference he gives us the depressing bios of some of the delegates such as David Duke, former head of the Ku Klux Klan or Veronica Clark, head of the Adolf Hitler Research Society, who presented a paper on how Hitler was in fact very lenient with Jewry or Patrick McNally who called the holocaust `a vicious lie.'

It is not surprising that after writing this book Naji has had to leave Iran. For his sharp eye underlines two alarming characteristics about President Ahmadinejad and the other hard-liners.... The first is naivety, a lack of planning, a making up of policy on the spot without thinking through the consequences. There is naivety in foreign policy: Naji makes it clear that Ahmadinejad had little idea about the backlash there would be from hosting Nazi lovers at his conference. He wanted to annoy America, but deeply offended the entire world, and so many politicians in Iran that the foreign ministry was hauled before parliament to explain itself. And there was much naivety in economics. Ahmadinejad insisted on a high minimum wage that then ruined small businesses and so threw out of work the very people he was trying to help. He also ordered the banks to cut interest rates to below the rate of inflation, which would make it impossible for them to make a profit. There is even naivety in religion and politics. Ahmadinejad thought he could win the support of women by allowing them into football matches. He was stepping into the territory of the ayatollahs and soon had to back down. The second characteristic Naji underlines is more disturbing. It is that Ahmadinejad - and many who rule with him - live in a make believe world where Iran's economy is flourishing, the `arrogant' i.e. imperial Western powers are retreating before the might of Iran and her allies like Bolivia, and it is the rest of the world that will suffer as the Islamic Republic steps up its sanctions regime on unfriendly countries. This is all disturbing, especially for Iran's citizens who have to live with the reality of rising prices, the impact of sanctions, and the threat of an attack from Israel over Iran's nuclear ambitions. Since this book was published in 2008 Ahmadinejad has had a few reality checks - not just the massive demonstrations after the 2009 presidential elections, or the bruising disputes with the Supreme Leader and parliament which he has lost,but also of course the fact that in 2013 he has to step down. Read more ›

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction August 29, 2008

By Dark Confidant

Format:Hardcover

This work was a great introduction into the known life of Iran's Ahmadinejad. This was my first book on the subject and once I finished the reading I felt that I knew that much more about Iran's leader that is under much scrutiny from other world powers. If anyone wants to gain insight into present day Iran and Ahmadinejad, this book is a must. The book was well written and presented clearly. You'll not only learn about Ahmadinejad, but also of those that helped shape his political ideas. The title is relatively cheap compared to some of the other books available on the subject and is a very interesting read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, informative December 22, 2012

By Matthew M. Howell

Format:Hardcover

One can't help but suspect that the author has a bone to pick with not only the subject of the book, but also the whole establishment which he represents. On the other hand, this does little to detract from the amazingly consistent picture of Ahmadinejad which emerges over the course of the book. This is a man for whom religion and its concerns are central to his world view. This is a person for whom earthly considerations are of pale value in comparison to the central task of preparing the world for the coming of the hidden imam. Thus, all other concerns being secondary, coupled with an incredibly naive and obstinate personality, makes it difficult to anticipate much progress on rapprochement between the west and Iran while Ahmadinejad is leading the country.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Grade : A +++ - Excellent - Highly Recommended September 1, 2010

By R. Philip

Format:Hardcover

Don't be fooled by the cover.
This is the best biography of AM to date.

It is an excellent political and electoral biography of AM's rise to power and
how this President and the ruling clerical elite manage the entire government and political economy of Iran - at all levels - local to national.
This management style is akin to the Soviet management style in post Stalinism with the predictable economic results.In many ways the look and economic ambience of Iran is like the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

Iran's top economic managemers are clerics, the National Sales Manger is their controlled man - AM - and the middle managers who execute economic policy are Paramilitary forces with little restraint as recent events have shown.

The result is anger at injustice and the great cycle of Iranian revolution is underway again.
A poodle named AM who is sitting on the lid of a boiling pot as the Shah was in 1964.
Who knows how long it takes for a pot to boil over? Unknown

But the pot will boil over and when it does ... it will burn many people as it did in 1905 and 1979.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent ! March 12, 2010

By ArmC3

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are interested in learning more about humanity's latest-and-greatest loony tune to jump onto the world stage, this book is for you! Kasra Naji does an excellent job of describing the background, influences on and maniacal mindset of the man who has become the U.N. General Assembly's annual showman and entertainer (beating out Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and the old-timer Fidel Castro, who hasn't attended UNGA in years). More important - and more frightening than Dr. Ahmadinejad himself - is the context in which Ahmadinejad operates: he is not a soloist on stage, but rather one of several nut-jobs in the Iranian political establishment currently running the government.

If there ever is a reason for Americans to sleep with one eye open these days, wondering "what next?" after Iraq and Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad and Co. is it. A must-read for all those who think they know about international affairs, conflict resolution and negotiation; leadership studies and charisma.