Customer Reviews

The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran from Autocracy to Religious Rule

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I read this good book, here in Brazil. This book is a short, concise and easy to read book, about the last Shah of Iran.
Ten excellents parts of this book:
1- Page 53 has informations about Iran's growing during years of Shah's government.
2- Page 57 has informations about growing of American influence in Iran.
3- Pages 76 and 77 have informations about Land Reform.
4- Page 88 has informations about the support of the Shah to women's rights.
5- Pages 93 to 96 have informations about the link between USSR and Iran.
6- Pages 109 to 113 have informations about the first oil shock and flow of tens of billions of US dollars to Iran.
7- Page 158 has informations about Iran's defense budget. Between 27 and 29% of Iranian budget went to armed forces.
8- Page 184 has informations about importations of food for the Iran. This page is the onlyest in this book, with the word "Brazil". In this case as one source of food for Iran.
9- Pages 197 to 199 have informations about Shah's external failures.
10- Page 203 has sentences writen about the main Shah's mistakes. This is the best page of this book.
Even so, I can't give five stars for this book, because:
1- This book follows the opposite way compared to the book " Jimmy Carter: The Liberal Left and World Chaos: A Carter/Obama Plan That Will Not Work " by Mike Evans. In this book, the Shah seems to be (almost) ever wrong. In the Mike Evans' book, the Shah seems to be (almost) ever right. Two opposites ways, with the same mistake. The Shah wasn't so good as in the Mike Evans' book or so bad as in this book. This book hasn't almost nothing about the external pressure to down the Shah. The histerical campaingn against the Shah did by BBC, The New York Times, Le Monde, etc. hasn't any place in this book.
2-Yes, the Shah made a mistake after another mistake, in his last years of rule, but this book forgets how these mistakes were did by following bad advices American hight autorities. As an example, there's informations about the Land Reform did by the Shah in 1960 decade, but when you know the terrible results of this Land Reform, there's just informations about importations of food for the Iran(see page 184), not why Iran became importanting so many food. The other even more terrible result of this Land Reform was the end of the class of land lord that supported the Iranians Shahs for about 2,500 years. Without this class, the Shiite Clergy linked to a poor people and an economic crisis defeated the Shah easily.
3- This book has nothing about the Shah's end in Egypt, without no power, hope or friends. A page about the Shah's end would be a good thing in this book.
4- This book never compares the Shah's failures, with the far worse defects of the Ayatollah Khomeini and his succeessors, in all things. Since the Shah's fall, Iran became a complete economic failure and a main supporter of Islamic terrorism.