BookS

America and Iran: A History 1720 to the Present

“History in the hands of a master. Ghazvinian leads us far beyond the mindless shouting of recent decades to tell a story of friendship, sacrifice and discovery. Should be required reading in both Tehran and Washington.”

— Ambassador John Limbert, US Deputy Secretary of State for Iran (2009-2010); former hostage in the US Embassy in Tehran (1979-1981)

“An important, urgently needed book — a hugely ambitious, illuminating portrait of the two-centuries-long entwined histories of Iran and America, and the first book to examine, in all its aspects, the rich and fraught relations between these two powers — once allies, now adversaries.

”In this rich, fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of the relations of these two powers back to the Persian Empire of the eighteenth century — the subject of great admiration of Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams — and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government.

”Drawing on years of archival research both in the United States and Iran — including access to Iranian government archives rarely available to Western scholars, Ghazvinian leads us through the four seasons of US-Iran relations: the ‘spring’ of mutual fascination; the ‘summer’ of early interactions; the ‘autumn’ of close strategic ties; and the long, dark ‘winter’ of mutual hatred.

”Ghazvinian, with grasp and a storyteller’s ability, makes clear where, how and when it all went wrong. And shows why two countries that once had such heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies; showing us, as well, how it didn’t have to turn out this way.”

—PenguinRandomHouse

(Knopf, 26 Jan 2021)

American and Muslim Worlds before 1900

Co-edited by Arthur Mitchell Fraas

American and Muslim Worlds before 1900 challenges the prevailing assumption that when we talk about "American and Muslim worlds", we are talking about two conflicting entities that came into contact with each other in the 20th century. Instead, this book shows there is a long and deep seam of history between the two which provides an important context for contemporary events -- and is also important in its own right.

Some of the earliest American Muslims were the African slaves working in the plantations of the Carolinas and Latin America. Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder himself, was frequently called an "infidel" and suspected of hidden Muslim sympathies by his opponents. Whether it was the sale of American commodities in Central Asia, Ottoman consuls in Washington, orientalist themes in American fiction, the uprisings of enslaved Muslims in Brazil, or the travels of American missionaries in the Middle East, there was no shortage of opportunities for Muslims and inhabitants of the Americas to meet, interact and shape one another from an early period.

(Bloomsbury, 2020)

Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil

Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn’t seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude oil skyrocketing and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the nineteenth-century scramble for colonization there. But what does this giddy new oil boom mean—for America, for the world, for Africans themselves?John Ghazvinian traveled through twelve African countries—from Sudan to Congo to Angola—talking to warlords, industry executives, bandits, activists, priests, missionaries, oil-rig workers, scientists, and ordinary people whose lives have been transformed—not necessarily for the better—by the riches beneath their feet. The result is a high-octane narrative that reveals the challenges, obstacles, reasons for despair, and reasons for hope emerging from one of the world’s energy hot spots.

(Harcourt, 2007)