Resources
What I have heard time and time again from Iranians is that if you really want to understand the Iranian psyche you must read Persian Poetry. There is a great deal of modern and classical Persian poetry in translation, and of course, MUCH is lost in translation but since I don’t speak (never mind read) Persian, I’m reliant on the translations. But that’s another list! For now, here’s a list of books that I found most insightful and enjoyable. There are many, many more...
Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora
By Persis M. Karim and Al Young
An extensive collection of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by women whose lives have been shaped and influenced by Iran's recent history, exile, immigration and the formation of new cultural identities in the United States and Europe. Unlike many flat media portrayals of Iranian women—as veiled, silenced—these writers offer a complex literary view of Iranian culture and its influences. Featuring over one hundred selections (two-thirds of which have never been published before) by more than fifty contributors, the collection represents a substantial diversity of voices in this multicultural community.
Tales of Two Cities: a Persian Memoir
By Abbas Milani
A Persian Memoir is an engrossing, cross-cultural memoir of revolution and exile. It is the story of a fifteen year-old Persian boy sent for his eduction from an old-world, pre-oil boom Tehran, to the new-world, avant-garde San Francisco of the 1960s. Abbas Milani richly chronicles his education, politicization, return to Iran, disillusionment and eventual exile.
All the Shah’s Men, An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
By Stephen Kinzer
Kinzer, a veteran New York Times foreign correspondent has reconstructed the CIA's 1953 overthrow of the elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, who was wildly popular at home for having nationalized his country's oil industry. The coup ushered in the long and brutal dictatorship of Mohammad Reza Shah, widely seen as a U.S. puppet and himself overthrown by the Islamic revolution of 1979. At its best this work reads like a spy novel, with code names and informants, midnight meetings with the monarch and a last-minute plot twist when the CIA's plan, called Operation Ajax, nearly goes awry.
Shah of Shahs
By Ryszard Kapuscinski
In Shah of Shahs Kapuscinski brings a mythographer's perspective and a novelist's virtuosity to bear on the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, one of the most infamous of the United States' client-dictators, who resolved to transform his country into "a second America in a generation," only to be toppled virtually overnight. From his vantage point at the break-up of the old regime, Kapuscinski gives us a compelling history of conspiracy, repression, fanatacism, and revolution.
Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies, Iran, the US and the Twisted Path to Confrontation
By Barbara Slavin
This book ties together two closely related subjects. First a description of the Iranian polity presented in a series of chapters starting with a depiction of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Her second subject, is an account of the stormy relations between Iran and the United States: including how the post-9/11 cooperation between Tehran and Washington against al Qaeda and the Taliban was jolted by President George W. Bush's January 2002 speech naming Iran as a member of an "axis of evil.”
The Ayatollah Begs to Differ
By Hooman Majd
In this critical but affectionate portrait of Iranian politics and culture, Majd, the Western-educated grandson of an ayatollah, delves into the very core of Iranian society, closely examining social mores and Farsi phrases to identify the Persian sensibility, which, Majd determines, cherishes privacy, praise and poetry. The author's brisk, conversational prose is appealing; his book reads as if he is chatting with a smart friend, while strolling around Tehran, engaged in ta'arouf (an exaggerated form of self-deprecation key to understanding Persian society).
Persian Pilgrimages: Journey’s across Iran
By Afshin Molavi
Iranian American journalist Molavi spent approximately one year living in Tehran and exploring the country that his family had left more than 20 years before. As he travels well-known cities two decades after the revolution, he simultaneously explores the rich historical and cultural past of his roots. Molavi discovers two schisms in the popular consciousness, the first between the pre-Islamic Persian Empire dating from 500 B.C.E. and the current Islamic Iran, the second between a genuine devotion to Islam in the street and a concurrent wish for a green card or visa to a Western country.
Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States
By Trita Parsi
This book traces the shifting relations among Israel, Iran, and the United States from 1948 to the present, uncovering for the first time the details of secret alliances, treacherous acts, and unsavory political maneuverings that have undermined Middle Eastern stability and disrupted U.S. foreign policy initiatives in the region. Trita Parsi, a U.S. foreign policy expert with more than a decade of experience, dissects the complicated triangular relations of their countries, arguing that America’s hope for stability in Iraq and for peace in Israel is futile without a correct understanding of the Israeli-Iranian rivalry.
Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran
By Elaine Sciolino
As a correspondent for Newsweek and The New York Times, Elaine Sciolino has had more experience covering Iran than any other American reporter. She was aboard the airplane that took Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Tehran in 1979 and was there for the Iranian revolution, the hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq war, the rise of President Khatami, and the riots of the summer of 1999. In Persian Mirrors, Sciolino takes us into the public and private spaces of Iran and uncovers an alluring and seductive nation where a great battle is raging — not for control over territory, but for the soul of its people.
The Shahnameh and My Uncle Napoleon
Translated By Dick Davis
This coming of age novel by Iranian author Iraj Pezeshkzad was published in Tehran in Persian in 1973. The novel was adapted to a highly successful TV series in 1976. Though the book and the TV series have been banned since the Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran, both have thrived underground and are considered a big part of persian pop culture. To this day, it is cited as "the most important and well-loved work of Iranian fiction since World War II" (Ryan 2006) and "a testament to the complexity, vitality, and flexibility of Iranian culture and society" (Nafisi 2006). It is noted for its lampooning of the widespread Iranian belief that the English are responsible for events that occur in Iran.
Searching for Hassan
By Terence Ward
The unique culture of Iran and the sweep of its history are revealed in this evocative travelogue of an American family searching for a lost friend in the country of their youth. Growing up in Tehran in the 1960s, Terence Ward and his brothers were watched over by Hassan, the family’s cook, housekeeper, and cultural guide. After an absence of forty years, Ward embarked on a pilgrimage with his family in search of Hassan. Searching for Hassan enhances our understanding of the Middle East with the story of a family who came to love and admire Iran through their deep affection for its people.
Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
By Firoozeh Dumas
Dumas and her family first came to the U.S. from Iran in the early '70s. In humorous vignettes, the author recounts her family’s resulting difficulties and Americans' almost total ignorance of Iran, illustrating the kindness of people and her father's absolute love of the U.S. Her descriptions of American culture and her experiences with school, TV, and language could be the observations of anyone new to the U.S., and her humor allows natives and non-natives alike to look at America with new insight.
Persepolis 1 and 2
By Marjane Satrapi
A funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit.
Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History
By John W. Limbert
As the United States weighs a change of approach toward the Iranian government after thirty years of confrontation, John Limbert steps up with a pragmatic yet positive assessment of how to engage Iran. John Limbert (one of the Americans taken hostage by Iranian students in 1979) writes from a personal and professional perspective, combining a deep appreciation and knowledge of Iranian culture and history and first-hand diplomatic experience. Anyone interested in understanding U.S.-Iranian history and relations will find this volume invaluable.
Forces of Fortune: the Rise of the Muslim Middle Class and What it will Mean for Our World
Shi’a Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future
By Vali Nasr
Renowned Middle East expert Vali Nasr's bestselling The Shia Revival profoundly transformed the debate about the Iraq War by unveiling how the Sunni-Shia rift was driving the insurgency. Now, in Forces of Fortune, Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
The Mantle of the Prophet
By Roy P. Mottahedeh
By telling the story of the life and thought of one individual, a mullah, and weaving into it patches of history and of the thought of influential figures of the past from Avicenna to Mossadegh and Ali Shariati, Professor Mottahedeh makes possible a deeper understanding of the Khomeini revolution and of the intertwining of religion and politics in Iran. No one who reads this book will ever again be able to accept the media stereotype of the Shi'i as kill-crazy fanatics. The joy of religious mystery and the search for knowledge, reason and justice are shown to be the inspiration of the Shi'i faith, which has suffered much for its survival.
Iran Between Two Revolutions
By Ervand Abrahamian
Emphasizing the interaction between political organizations and social forces, Ervand Abrahamian discusses Iranian society and politics during the period between the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909 and the Islamic Revolution of 1977-1979. Professor Abrahamian explores the impact of socio-economic change on the political structure, especially under the reigns of Reza Shah and Muhammad Reza Shah, and throws fresh light on the significance of the Tudeh party and the failure of the Shah's regime from 1953 to 1978.