
Understanding Iran
Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Khamenei
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Narrated by:
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Paul Boehmer
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By:
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William R. Polk
About this listen
William R. Polk provides an informative, history of a country which is moving quickly toward becoming the dominant power and culture of the Middle East.
A former member of the State Department's Policy Planning Council, Polk describes a country and a history misunderstood by many in the West. While Iranians chafe under the yolk of their current leaders, they also have bitter memories of generations of British, Russian, and American espionage, invasion, and dominance. There are important lessons to be learned from the past, and Polk teases them out of a long and rich history and shows that it is not just now, but for decades to come that an understanding of Iran will be essential to American safety and well-being.
©2009, 2016 William R. Polk (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Working from both primary and secondary sources, Walter Reid explores Britain's role in the creation of the modern Middle East and the rise of Zionism from the early years of the twentieth century to 1948, when Britain handed over Palestine to United Nations' control. From the decisions that Britain made has flowed much of the instability of the region and of the worldwide tensions that threaten the twenty-first century; this thought-provoking book considers how much Britain was to blame.
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It's a must read.
- By Eduardo Gimenez on 03-22-25
By: Walter Reid
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The Fall of Heaven
- The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran
- By: Andrew Scott Cooper
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In this remarkably human portrait of one of the 20th century's most complicated personalities, author Andrew Scott Cooper traces Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He highlights the turbulence of the postwar era, during which the shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the world's top five powers.
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Excellent account of a pivotal and sad time
- By Guerin Shea on 09-05-16
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Lost Islamic History
- Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past
- By: Firas Alkhateeb
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social, and political forces in history. Over the last 1,400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities, and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France to East Africa and South East Asia. Yet many of the contributions of Muslim thinkers, scientists, and theologians, not to mention rulers, statesmen, and soldiers, have been occluded. This book rescues from oblivion and neglect some of these personalities and institutions.
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Excellent narration
- By Jamal on 06-19-22
By: Firas Alkhateeb
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Target Tehran
- How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East
- By: Yonah Jeremy Bob, Ilan Evyatar
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Yonah Bob and Ilan Evyatar describe how Israel has used cyberwarfare, targeted assassinations, and sabotage of Iranian facilities to great effect, sometimes in cooperation with the United States. Even as it takes lethal action, Israel has managed to alter the politics of the Middle East, culminating in the Abraham Accords of 2020. Arab states such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel, and the holy grail of normalization with Saudi Arabia may yet be achieved.
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Couldn’t walk away !
- By ADAM on 01-10-24
By: Yonah Jeremy Bob, and others
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Iran's Grand Strategy
- A Political History
- By: Vali Nasr
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Iran presents one of the most significant foreign policy challenges for America and the West, yet very little is known about what the country's goals really are. Vali Nasr examines Iran's political history in new ways to explain its actions and ambitions on the world stage, showing how, behind the veneer of theocracy and Islamic ideology, today's Iran is pursuing a grand strategy aimed at securing the country internally and asserting its place in the region and the world.
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well detailed history of modern Iran
- By Fr. S. on 06-28-25
By: Vali Nasr
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Let Them Eat Tweets
- How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality
- By: Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In Let Them Eat Tweets, best-selling political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson offer a definitive answer: the Republican Party serves its plutocratic masters to a degree without precedent in modern global history. Conservative parties, by their nature, almost always side with the rich. But when faced with popular resistance, they usually make concessions, allowing some policies that benefit the working and middle classes. After all, how can a political party maintain power in a democracy if it serves only the interests of a narrow and wealthy slice of society?
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a call to action that does not shame but warns
- By SomeGuy on 08-29-20
By: Jacob S. Hacker, and others
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The Arabs
- A History
- By: Eugene Rogan
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 27 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on Arab sources and texts to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context for the first time. Tracing five centuries of Arab history, Rogan reveals that there was an age when the Arabs set the rules for the rest of the world. Today, however, the Arab world's sense of subjection to external powers carries vast consequences for both the region and Westerners who attempt to control it.
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Superb Book About the Arab World
- By Nostromo on 05-29-16
By: Eugene Rogan
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The Secret World
- A History of Intelligence
- By: Christopher Andrew
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 37 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The history of espionage is far older than any of today's intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. In this audiobook, distinguished historian Christopher Andrew recovers much of the lost intelligence history of the past three millennia - and shows its relevance today.
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Very interesting history but biased
- By Thor Olson on 10-09-18
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The Age of Extremes
- 1914-1991
- By: Eric Hobsbawm
- Narrated by: Hugh Kermode
- Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the short century between 1914 and 1991, the world has been convulsed by two global wars that swept away millions of lives and entire systems of government. Communism became a messianic faith and then collapsed ignominiously. Peasants became city dwellers, housewives became workers - and, increasingly leaders. Populations became literate even as new technologies threatened to make print obsolete. And the driving forces of history swung from Europe to its former colonies.
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Gain without Pain
- By Broken Luck on 07-25-21
By: Eric Hobsbawm
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Afghanistan
- Graveyard of Empires A New History of the Borderland
- By: David Isby
- Narrated by: Gregory Abbey
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The task of implementing an effective American policy and cementing Afghan rule is hampered by what Isby sees as separate but overlapping conflicts between terrorism, narcotics, and regional rivalries, each presenting separate yet equally challenging issues to resolve. This book provides the road map to overcoming these obstacles and finding a way forward for the U.S. and the Afghan nation.
By: David Isby
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Pivot of the Universe
- Nasir al-Din Shah and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896
- By: Abbas Amanat
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 21 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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When he was assassinated in 1896, Nasir al-Din Shah had sat on the Peacock throne for nearly half a century. A colorful, complex figure, he is frequently portrayed as indolent and self-indulgent. Yet he was in many ways an effective ruler who displayed exceptional resilience in the face of dilemmas and vulnerabilities shared by most monarchs of the Islamic world in the 19th century. In this book-the first in English about Nasir al-Din Shah, Abbas Amanat gives us both a biography of the man and an analysis of the institution of monarchy in modern Iran.
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History
- By ahmad farzad md on 08-09-23
By: Abbas Amanat
Interesting and informative
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Great book with clear narration
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- Shimon Peres, former Israeli PM
I listened to this book to help gain more understanding of Iran, its history, people, and main events. In that regard, the book was good. The ancient history and really everything before the 20th century was dry and completely foreign to me, though it does a good job of showing the terrain of Iran, and why invading it was never optimal. Once the narrative hits the CIA overthrow of the Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, in 1953...it gets more relatable. And the segment on the Shah, and his backing by the US government, was interesting.
Given that William R. Polk was a foreign policy consultant, the book does tilt towards the US viewpoint of events. However, for the most part, the book is even handed. The Iranian Revolution is explained, and while most Americans will not be sympathetic to the American Embassy being seized, it is at least explained why it was done. The many missteps by the religious zealots in Iran are laid out. The book does take a somewhat Democrat Party view, but there is not really any harsh criticism of the George W Bush regime. A more honest brokering of the facts would have called out the complete nonsense that Bush's "Axis of Evil" contention was. There was absolutely no coordination between Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Iran and Iraq fought a lengthy war, with the USA ostensibly siding and arming Iraq.
Very little discussion of Israel, as that animosity seems to be more ramped up in the 21st century, with Israeli PM Netanyahu claiming for the past 25 years that Iran is weeks away from a nuclear weapon. The obvious demonization of Iran plays into the Greater Israel Project, and the recent bombing of Iran's nuclear sites are really just this land grab agenda being played out. I wish the author would have discussed a little more on how the creation of the Israeli state in the late 1940s, and its continuous warring and bellicosity towards Arab/Muslim nations and the Palestinians affected Iran.
A good book, which tells a mainstream, therefore mostly pro-American view of the history. The narrator can be annoying, pronouncing foreign words so that the listener sometimes has no idea what word he said. And also, he gives many non-Iranians a British accent. This is the case even when the character is not British. The author is a notable exception to this, which is some small solace.
And now I’m even the Boogeyman’s nightmare.
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I think the last straw was the tired, quasi-racist cliche of reading "Tehran", "Mahmood Ahmadinezhad" and "Mohammad Reza Shah" as "Tekhran", "Makhmood Akhmadinejad" and "Mokhammad Reza Shah" respectively.
Horrendous Narration
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Terrible
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