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The Last Shah
America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty
Ray Takeyh provides new interpretations of many important events—including the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq and the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—significantly revising our understanding of the United States’ and Iran’s complex and difficult history.
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- Foreign policy analyses written by CFR fellows and published by the trade presses, academic presses, or the Council on Foreign Relations Press.
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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. Middle East scholar Ray Takeyh provides new interpretations of many important 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.
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In the News
Why the Past Haunts Talks With IranNew York Times
Downfall of the House of PahlaviLaw & Liberty
The Fall of the ShahWashington Examiner
‘The Last Shah’ Review: A Purely Domestic ConspiracyWall Street Journal