🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

This book tells the story the midcentury coup in Iran, which was orchestrated by US and British intelligence operatives. The purpose of the coup was to remove Mohammad Mosaddegh from power, who was Iran’s popular, progressive, anti-colonial leader, and who wanted to oust the British from controlling the Iranian oil industry. The book provides a detailed account of Mosaddegh’s career, and gives an interesting background of Iranian culture & politics.

👀 How I Discovered It

I became interested in learning more about Iran from watching the (amazing) first season of the Apple TV+ Original show Tehran. I mentioned my interested to my friend Jay when I was visiting him in Chicago in March, and he suggested this book which he had read last year.

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

The subheading of this book is “An American Coup and the roots of Middle East Terror”. On top of my interest in Iranian culture, I was also excited to learn some history about western involvement in Middle Eastern geopolitics. I frankly don’t know very much at all about that part of the world, or the United State’s role there.

But I absolutely at this book up, and I am continuing so seek out additional learning resources to help me learn more about Iran and the Middle East.

This book also awakened in me desire to learn more about different cultures, in general. In my formal education, I never sought out or paid much attention to history or geography or social studies classes… but I am now discovering that I enjoy learning about other parts of the world, and the people there. This book did a phenomenal job explaining the cultural inheritance of Iran, and how their history affects the way Iranians see the world. I’m not used to thinking about people (including myself) like that, so it was fun to learn, and gain fresh perspective!