Guardians of the Revolution
Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs
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Narrated by:
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Peter Ganim
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By:
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Ray Takeyh
About this listen
For over a quarter century, Iran has been one of America's chief nemeses. Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah in 1979, the relationship between the two nations has been antagonistic: revolutionary guards chanting against the Great Satan, Bush fulminating against the Axis of Evil, Iranian support for Hezbollah, and President Ahmadinejad blaming the U.S. for the world's ills.
The unending war of words suggests an intractable divide between Iran and the West, one that may very well lead to a shooting war in the near future. But as Ray Takeyh shows in this accessible and authoritative history of Iran's relations with the world since the revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans is a nation that is far more pragmatic - and complex - than many in the West have been led to believe. Takeyh explodes many of our simplistic myths of Iran as an intransigently Islamist foe of the West. Tracing the course of Iranian policy since the 1979 revolution, Takeyh identifies four distinct periods: The revolutionary era of the 1980s, the tempered gradualism following the death of Khomeini and the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1989, the "reformist" period from 1997-2005 under President Khatami, and the shift toward confrontation and radicalism since the election of President Ahmadinejad in 2005.
Takeyh shows that three powerful forces - Islamism, pragmatism, and great power pretensions - have competed in each of these periods, and that Iran's often paradoxical policies are in reality a series of compromises between the hardliners and the moderates, often with wild oscillations between pragmatism and ideological dogmatism. The U.S.'s task, Takeyh argues, is to find strategies that address Iran's objectionable behavior without demonizing this key player in an increasingly vital and volatile region. With its clear-sighted grasp of both nuance and historical sweep, Guardians of the Revolution will stand as the standard work on this controversial - and central - actor in world politics for years to come.
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Focus on the Top Leadership
- By Augustus T. White on 08-13-10
By: Vladimir Zubok
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Interventions
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Interventions, by Noam Chomsky, is getting new press after the Pentagon banned the book from Guantanamo Bay's prison library. Interventions is Noam Chomsky at his best. Not since his all-time best-selling title, 9/11, published in the Open Media series in 2001, have readers and listeners had a timely, short, affordable Chomsky. Unlike 9/11, Interventions is a writerly work - a series of more than 30 tightly argued essays aimed at various aspects of U.S. power and politics in the post-9/11 world. While critical of U.S. military interventions around the globe, each piece in the book is in itself an intellectual intervention.
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Chomsky on Fire
- By Susie on 01-09-13
By: Noam Chomsky
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The Jungle Grows Back
- America and Our Imperiled World
- By: Robert Kagan
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse.
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Out of date: covid, Trump nobel nominations etc
- By David on 11-13-18
By: Robert Kagan
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The Cold War
- A New History
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jay Gregory, Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on new and often startling information from newly opened Soviet, Eastern European, and Chinese archives, this thrilling account explores the strategic dynamics that drove the Cold War, provides illuminating portraits of its major personalities, and offers much fresh insight into its most crucial events. Riveting, revelatory, and wise, it tells a story whose lessons it is vitally necessary to understand as America once more faces an implacable ideological enemy.
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WOW
- By Cordell eddings on 10-13-07
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The End of Tsarist Russia
- The March to World War I and Revolution
- By: Dominic Lieven
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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World War I and the Russian Revolution together shaped the 20th century in profound ways. In The End of Tsarist Russia, acclaimed scholar Dominic Lieven connects for the first time the two events, providing both a history of the First World War's origins from a Russian perspective and an international history of why the revolution happened.
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A good book done in by bad narration.
- By James on 05-25-16
By: Dominic Lieven
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The End of Europe
- Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age
- By: James Kirchick
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Once the world's bastion of liberal, democratic values, Europe is now having to confront demons it thought it had laid to rest. The old pathologies of anti-Semitism, populist nationalism, and territorial aggression are threatening to tear the European postwar consensus apart. Based on extensive firsthand reporting, this book is a provocative, disturbing look at a continent in unexpected crisis.
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Disappointing, Silly And Really Childish Book.
- By Eireannach on 04-14-17
By: James Kirchick
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The Vietnam War
- A Concise International History
- By: Mark Atwood Lawrence
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed as a "pithy and compelling account of an intensely relevant topic" ( Kirkus Reviews), this wide-ranging volume offers a superb account of a key moment in modern U.S. and world history. Drawing upon the latest research in archives in China, Russia, and Vietnam, Mark Lawrence creates an extraordinary, panoramic view of all sides of the war.
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Politically Slanting But Enjoyable Narrative
- By Jonathan Hoyle on 04-11-14
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All Measures Short of War
- The Contest for the Twenty-First Century and the Future of American Power
- By: Thomas J. Wright
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Russia and China are increasingly revisionist in their regions. The Middle East appears to be unraveling. And many Americans question why the United States ought to lead. What will great power competition look like in the decades ahead? What impact will geopolitics have on globalization? And what strategy should the United States pursue to succeed in an increasingly competitive world? In this book, Thomas Wright explains how major powers will compete fiercely even as they try to avoid war with each other.
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Globalist propaganda
- By Anthony Colosimo Jr on 07-10-21
By: Thomas J. Wright
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The Cold War
- A World History
- By: Odd Arne Westad
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 22 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Cold War, Odd Arne Westad offers a new perspective on a century when a superpower rivalry and an ideological war transformed every corner of our globe. We traditionally think of the Cold War as a post-World War II diplomatic and military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Westad argues that the conflict must be understood as a global ideological confrontation with roots in the industrial revolution and with continuing implications for the world today.
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A lenghy treatise on the Cold War
- By Donald Hill on 11-21-17
By: Odd Arne Westad
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A History of Fascism, 1914-1945
- By: Stanley G. Payne
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Focusing mostly on Italy and Germany but also considering Spain, Romania, Japan, and movements in other countries, Payne describes fascism as revolutionary ultranationalism based on national rebirth, extreme elitism, mass mobilization, and the promotion of violence and military virtues. He also suggests that the early Russian communists borrowed many techniques from fascism, and that though we are fairly well-inoculated against fascism itself, the values it represents could still emerge in new forms.
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Dated lit review, ill-suited for audiobook
- By Keith on 11-24-19
By: Stanley G. Payne
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Washington Rules
- America's Path to Permanent War
- By: Andrew Bacevich
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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For the last half century, as administrations have come and gone, the fundamental assumptions about America's military policy have remained unchanged: American security requires the United States (and us alone) to maintain a permanent armed presence around the globe, to prepare our forces for military operations in far-flung regions, and to be ready to intervene anywhere at any time. In the Obama era, just as in the Bush years, these beliefs remain unquestioned gospel.
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Permanent war and insolvency...thanks Washington
- By Jonnie on 10-13-10
By: Andrew Bacevich
What listeners say about Guardians of the Revolution
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrew D. Brown
- 05-21-19
A good book, good overview but not great
This is a good overview of the factions within Iran since the Revolution. It’s a good summary and really puts some thought into how these factions work with each other and the outside world. It’s not the most comfortable story.
Well written but at times too willing to accept the “press” version of history. Overall I recommend as an entry point into the topic.
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- Lee
- 03-21-16
Solid introduction to contemporary Iran
I say solid introduction because Guardians of the Revolution only covers the major players, factions, and events. It doesn't delve into the lives of Iranians, nor much into the Iranian parliament. Even major events, such as the hostage crisis, leave the reader (at least this reader) wanting more information despite receiving an entire chapter covering them.
As such, Guardians of the Revolution does not stack up in depth when compared with books such as Magnificent Delusions, The Plantagenets, or Legacy of Ashes. However, it does a good job of examining and analyzing the Iranian perspective of the past 40 years of events. It serves as a good teacher if you are interested in learning more about Iran, and are not already well-acquainted with the subject-matter.
At this point it is not as contemporary as may be hoped, as it ends with the Green movement and Ahmadinejad still in power. I, for one, will be looking forward to a sequel or update that examines Rouhani's return to the presidency, Iran & ISIS, and the end of US sanctions.
Regarding the difficulty of the book: This is a scholarly text, written by member of the Council on Foreign Relations. As with the other books I have mentioned above, a reader should expect a degree of professionalism with regards to the subject matter and the language used in such a text.
Regarding the political leanings of the book: I personally felt that this book was too generous regarding the Iran-Contra scandal, and it could have rebuked both Clinton and George W. Bush far more than it did.
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- Mitch
- 06-18-13
Much of the data was good, but I'd skip it.
I have read just about every book there is to read on this subject, and am an Iranian myself. I appreciate this book and the direction from which it is written, however I would have preferred it without the political slant.
It's very clear that the author has a dislike for Bush 43, and that gets in the way of the content of the book. It's unfortunate that such an in depth book is hindered by political views.
The authors anti-Bush rhetoric isn't the only negative. The author also goes on to blame Iran's problems on everyone but Iran. He's sympathetic to the jurisprudence in Iran, and makes the case that the rest of the world hasn't tried to negotiate or engage them, which is false.
A much better, less politically skewed work, is Amir Taheri's The Persian Night, also available here on Audible.
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- A. M.
- 07-03-14
Verbose, topical, and without substance
Any additional comments?
It was like listening to someone read through an entire thesaurus. If I hear the word "exigencies" one more time, I'll scream! Never have so many words said so little about so much for so long. Throughout the entire book (yes, I listened to all of it because I'm cheap) I kept waiting for the introduction to end.
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- Jim
- 02-20-15
Too Academic
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
I was looking for more facts and more detail on how the people of Iran live under the current government. I wanted to know what makes them different and whether or not they really hate America.
Any additional comments?
This reads like a master's level academic book. The vocabulary is intelligent but hard to follow. My mind constantly wandered while listening.
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2 people found this helpful