December 21, 2015
This immersive intellectual history will be, for many Western readers, their first encounter with the complex currents of thought that led to the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and continue to fuel Iran’s evolving story today. Journalist Secor delves into the ideas of the Islamic Republic’s varied rulers and intellectuals, as well as those of their pre-revolutionary antecedents. This is no lightweight summary, with topics including the contradictions of the Iranian revolutionary constitution and Austrian-British political theorist Karl Popper’s abiding influence on critics of the Islamic Republic. The theoretical material is interspersed with short biographies of dissident writers, journalists, and activists who are little known outside Iran, despite the brave stands that sent many to jail; those who survived imprisonment were exiled. Secor’s detailed but accessible explanations provide both concrete facts and a general sense that Iranian politics are far more complex than the thumbnail analyses typically provided in Western coverage. She also makes clear, with multiple accounts of violent crackdowns, that almost no one in Iran is safe from its deeply entrenched security state, with writers coming across as particularly vulnerable. Secor’s clear writing offers a firm grounding in the last 40 years of Iranian political thought and the many actions it has inspired in a complicated and fascinating country.
November 15, 2015
A close look at Iranian culture and politics from the 1979 revolution to the present. Journalist Secor, whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and other publications, visited Iran five times between 2004 and 2012, interviewing more than 150 Iranians and observing four elections. Those experiences, and many published sources, inform her revealing, often shocking debut book about the turbulent nation perceived by the West as a monolithic threat. The 1979 uprising that ousted the shah "was supposed to yield a just and self-governing" nation; instead, the country fell into "war, want, and profound isolation." Despite having an elected president and parliament, a cleric reigned as "vice-regent of God on earth" and commander of the army. All laws were subject to the approval of this Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Khomeini wielded that power with ferocity against liberals, leftists, and the United States. Nevertheless, some Iranian intellectuals questioned tradition, published widely read critiques, and looked to the West "for its most useful modern ideas while discarding its toxic core." By the fall of 1998, many of these writers "understood that they were living under siege." Within the next few years, writes Secor, "the Islamic Republic was riddled with mafia-like grids that operated in secrecy." In June 2005, the country made a surprising choice for president: the little-known mayor of Tehran, arrogant, swaggering, with a scruffy beard and "goofy grin," who campaigned as a populist: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "a common man, and a demagogue." In matters foreign and domestic, "he smashed things and watched indifferently as others picked up the pieces." Despite all this, Secor feels optimistic about Iran's future, claiming that the nation has a "seemingly endless capacity to produce internal opposition to its own authoritarianism." She characterizes its current president, Hassan Rouhani, as a moderate who wants to foster goodwill toward the West. An insightful chronicle of bloody repression and brave defiance.
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March 15, 2016
Journalist Secor has compiled an incredible set of stories from a variety of individuals in Iran. The men and women--including politicians, journalists, poets--about whom Secor writes have each fought for political change in a country where doing so could prove extremely dangerous. She provides a distinct look into a society that, for most readers, has been nearly closed off to the rest of the world. The stories the author shares are filled with a moving spirit of determination and hope for social change that could result in a more open and accepting society. Her knowledge, attention to detail, and thorough research are immediately apparent. Secor uses her access to Iran in a way that helps to provide a better understanding of the social context behind the current political and economic changes happening within the region. Given the very recent change in relations between Iran and the Western world, Secor's work is an essential read and will help to shed light on the dreams, hardships, and changing views of the individuals who have helped to impact the direction of a nation. VERDICT This timely volume is highly recommended for readers with an interest in current events, sociology, political science, or history.--Brenna Smeall, Bellevue, NE
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 4, 2016
Marno gives us the clear, straightforward narration this fine book deserves. The film and TV actress knows how to dramatize scenes of daring dissident and reformist uprisings as well as emotional descriptions of horror, torture, and death within the context of a nonfiction book. Journalist Secor has written numerous articles on Iran over many years and bases her book on this meticulous research. The book isn't focussed on Iran's leaders since the 1979 revolution or the role of the U.S., but on its political, religious, and artistic activists over the last 40-odd years. The history of the forces playing out in Iran, and the sacrifices of these courageous men and women are made eminently clear, offering us a complex understanding of today's Islamic Republic. A Riverhead hardcover.