The Persians: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran

Vengono presentate le fasi di continuità e di rottura nella storia della Persia/Iran. Non cade nella semplificazione eccessiva e la curiosità del lettore più appassionato può essere appagata da un'ottima bibliografia selezionata.

I am no book critic. I have been reading and enjoying Dr. Katouzian's books for twenty years. This book brings together his vast and scholarly knowledge of 2500 years of Iranian history. No writer has achieved this. The narrative is very fluid and easy to read and understand, despite the sometimes complex subjects. I could not wait to finish it, so that I could start reading it again. If you are an Iranian, then you owe it to yourself to read this book. If you have adult children, please encourage them to read it. If you have young children, save this book in a safe place, and let them read it when they grow up. Finally, if you are interested in modern Iran, his two books about Musaddiq and the Emergence of the Pahlavis are unsurpassed for their quality of research and writing. You can find these and his other works on Amazon.

I loved the first chapter because it set out a fascinating scene regarding the Iranian history to succession and rule of law. It has been a tale of periods of stability under a strong shah then a brutal fight to determine the next one, and so on. For a new reader to the story from then on it was difficult to get a sense of the country over the centuries. One conflict, war and betrayal after another. The modern story was more detailed and comprehensible.

Finding a good book on Iran and its history is difficult. The Persians by Katouzian goes a long way to fill a significant gap in the field of history books on Iran. It includes massive amounts of detailed information from the very start of the Iranian civilization to the rise of Ahmadinejad. If you are doing research on Iran it is an excellent beginning or even a prime source of material. Additionally, the author does a good job in trying to explain the Iranian psyche which acts as a driving force in Iran's society and politics. It is however a book with significant flaws. The pre-modern material on Iran is very poorly structured with the author choosing to briefly mention significant events in one section and then analyzing them in detail a few pages afterwards. I have found almost an entire page being repeated twice verbatim in two sections of a chapter just to make a point half a page long. Therefore, the book feels somehwat erratic and disjointed rather than a beautifully flowing telling of the history of the country like for example Harold Tanner's books on China. Additionally, the book becomes increasingly dry especially in the modern era where concurrently the reader is swamped with uneccessary detail. Finally, his analysis on the deterioration of US-Iranian relations falls short. I would strongly recommend buying this book in combination with Understanding Iran by Polk which is much thinner on pre-modern Iranian history but much better at explaining US-Iranian relations in the modern era. So to sum it up; if you are looking for a detailed book on Iranian History this is it but keep in mind its poor structure and its dry writing.

Es un libro que escribió un iraní. No le he leído entero pero me gustan los detalles que describe el autor