"A brilliant volume, standing head and shoulders above many on the nationalization of oil and the 1953 Anglo-American coup in Iran. . . . Carefully documented. . . . Excellent."—Choice
"Making full use of the recently opened archives of the British Foreign Office, Elm has written a meticulous but highly readable account of the crisis. . . . Excellent."—American Historical Review
"An important contribution not only to our knowledge of modern Iranian history, but also to an understanding of imperialism . . . the product of a scholarly, engaged investigation that benefits from the knowledge and experience of a man who has lived through both the painful episodes of August 1953 and the revolution of February 1979, and who sees a direct correlation between the two."—International Journal of Middle East Studies
"An impressive work of scholarship by an Iranian economist and former diplomat [showing how] the CIA-orchestrated coup, followed by U.S. backing of the dictatorial Shah, planted the seeds of the 1978 Iranian Revolution, which in turn gave rise to Islamic fundamentalism."—Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Mostafa Elm held various posts in Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for more than two decades, including Director of the Economic Relations Department, Economic Counsellor at the Embassy in London, where he now resides, and Iran's representative at the United Nations Economic Committee meetings in New York. He also served as Ambassador to the Sudan and taught economics for several years at Tehran University.
December 1994