Heroes to Hostages: America and Iran, 1800-1988

US-Iran relations have been complex and turbulent over the last 50 years, but Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet's book shows that the rift was long in the making and did not originate in flashpoints of crisis. It presents an invaluable history of a diplomatic rivalry that informs geopolitics to this day.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 31 July 2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

It is easy to forget, given the oppositional dynamic between Iran and the United States of the last 50 years, that these two countries once shared a productive partnership. Tracing US-Iran relations over two turbulent centuries, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet considers when and how this relationship went awry. With careful attention to social and cultural as well as diplomatic developments, Kashani-Sabet shows that the rift did not originate in flashpoints of crisis, like the 1953 coup or the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but was instead long in the making. Drawing from a wealth of English and Persian-language sources, many of which were previously unavailable or unacknowledged, this book considers the relationship from the vantage point of Iranian society and the experiences of an evolving Iran that strived to accommodate American and great power politics. Following these two nations through wars, decolonization, and revolution, Kashani-Sabet presents an invaluable history of a diplomatic rivalry that informs geopolitics to this day.

It is easy to forget, given the oppositional dynamic between Iran and the United States of the last 50 years, that these two countries once shared a productive partnership. Tracing US-Iran relations over two turbulent centuries, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet considers when and how this relationship went awry. With careful attention to social and cultural as well as diplomatic developments, Kashani-Sabet shows that the rift did not originate in flashpoints of crisis, like the 1953 coup or the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but was instead long in the making. Drawing from a wealth of English and Persian-language sources, many of which were previously unavailable or unacknowledged, this book considers the relationship from the vantage point of Iranian society and the experiences of an evolving Iran that strived to accommodate American and great power politics. Following these two nations through wars, decolonization, and revolution, Kashani-Sabet presents an invaluable history of a diplomatic rivalry that informs geopolitics to this day.

Weight: 680g
Dimension: 153 x 229 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781009322133