A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind Paperback – March 9, 2010

This is an excellent exposition of Iranian history surveying the nation's history through the age of empire from the times of Cyrus the Great to the present government led by the Islamic Republic. One of the first things that will surprise you about this book is how extensive but yet quickly you will be able to move through the time periods of Persian history. The book starts by describing Persia from the first true Persian Dynasty, the Achaemenid dynasty, followed by the Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanid, Umayyad, Abassid, Saffavid, Qajar, and Phavali dynasties. The chapters are linked together by stories and important historical developments in each era and transistions smoothly by describing the fall and the rise of the subsequent powers.In addition, the author dedicated an extensive chapter to the acomplishment of Persian poets including works of Rumi, Saadi, Hafez, and Iraqi. It is most interesting to understand the role of poetry and its development in Persian history. The symbolism of the poetic works corresponds to subjects such as love, power, war, and life. However, I find the ones involving love most perxplexing and the usage of the term "wine" as the metaphor for love. The symbolic, which are mostly subliminal, of these poems are truly influential.So if you are someone who wants to thumb through a well composed survey of Iran's history, culture, and people this book is definitely the right one for you. It is always breathtaking to see how civilizations can influence each other in the most subtle manner and thus have profound effects just as how people may influence each other.

The first part, pre-Islamic, was sketchy. The Islamic part was good. The chapter on Persian poetry was excellent!

I was looking for a comprehensive book on Iranian history, and this is definitely the best one. It strikes a good tone between academic and popular history, and I loved the descriptions of poetry and religious movements. The only downside is that the history is so condensed that huge topics get very short thrift. I will have to follow up with narrower books on specific periods or issues. This is a good entry point to do so.

"In A History of Iran, acclaimed historian Michael Axworthy chronicles the rich history of this complex nation from the Achaemenid Empire of sixth century BC to the revolution of 1979 to today, including a close look at Iran's ongoing attempts to become a nuclear power. A History of Iran offers general readers an essential guide to understanding this volatile nation, which is once again at the center of the world's attention."A great book to read, especially today when tensions with Iran are running so high. Axworthy delivers a book everyone should read, hopefully giving people an understanding of Iran that goes beyond what political figures would like you to believe.

Another reader thought my first comment was a JOKE! so let me qualify that, people from the west pronounce this country's name like "eye-Ran" and they refer to us as "eye-ranians" which makes us cringe everytime we hear this botched pronounciation. Rarely does a westerner say it the proper way and for that they're not to blame, but the first scholars/diplomats who interacted with the west, for lack of knowledge and ignorance of the English language and its phonetics. Had it been printed as "Earon" in history books, then most would be saying it the right way. I thought for benefit of AMAZON's scholars and readers, they might appreciate to learn and practice saying 'Earon', and Earonians when they refer to us.I should also add that the author is clearly a well educated scholar who wrote this without any influence from an entity of interest and his recount of the history is impartial and accurate. In fact, I found this text to be more truthful than many of the history text books which we were forced to memorize as children growing up through elementary and high schools in Earon, which was due to the fact that powers to be at the time wanted to influence and brain wash a whole generation.Also as mentioned by another reader, don't anticipate any stories from the 20th century as the focus of this book is on the earlier dynasties who ruled the vast PERSIAN empire whose boarders stretched into significant portion of the continent of ASIA.