This book compellingly demonstrates how American and British involvement in Iranian politics from the 1940s through to the 1970s is almost entirely to blame for the instability of the entire Middle East region since that time. It biographically lays out Irans independent transition from monarchy to democracy and the complicated relationship between the movements figureheads, namely Mohammad Reza Shah and Mohammad Mosaddegh, respectively, as well as the covert operations undertaken by the British (under Churchill) and Americans (through the CIA) to maintain control of Iranian oil fields. It tragically tells the tale of how the patriotic Mosaddegh was overthrown and put under house arrest for the rest of his life. Under the reinstated Shah, Iranian patriotism eventually resurged and culminated in the revolution of 1979 which was this time seized not by democrats but by islamist extremists. ( )