Understanding Iran

Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Khamenei

De: William R. Polk

Narrado por: Paul Boehmer

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 Tantor

And now I’m even the Boogeyman’s nightmare.

"The president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map."
- 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 narrative 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.

Interesting and informative

Detailed account of Iran from the beginning. A great foundation and preparation for readers wanting to learn more about recent history of Iran. The narrator is excellent. Easy to listen to and very articulate.

Great book with clear narration

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the US-Iranian relations. It gives an overview of the Iranian history, society and foreign relations before getting into the history and policies of the US concerning Iran.

Horrendous Narration

Had to return it a couple of hours in when the narrator's fake "authentic" pronunciations got too much to bear.
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.

Terrible

The narrator is atrocious with ridiculous pronunciations - forget the Persian words, the reading is stilted and unnatural, just awful. The book’s central arguments are also flawed in the sense that they are deferential to some experts while quick to condemn others (the foreword argument against analyst “war games” over generalized and laughably two dimensional). No real sense of the history of Iran and the culture here, no deep examination of the impact of various military/diplomatic tools. Don’t waste your time, it’s atrocious. Read Axworthy instead.