Abbas Amanat, a distinguished and respected professor of Persian history at Yale, has written a truly great book on the history of Iran, its ideas, people, cultures, customs and politics. The result of more than twenty years of study, it should come as no surprise that it’s over nine hundred pages long. By placing the Iran of today firmly in the context of five hundred years of history, Amanat is able to offer a sensible, even-handed and accurate analysis of the country. This is history at its most rewarding and enlightening.

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