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Selected as one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year by the New
York Times In recent times, the United States and Iran have seemed
closer to war than peace, but that is not where their story began.
When America was in its infancy, Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy
Adams turned to the history of the Persian Empire as they looked
for guidance on how to run their new country. And in the following
century, Iranian newspapers heralded America as an ideal that their
own government might someday emulate. How, then, did the two
nations become the adversaries that they are today? In this rich,
fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of
America and Iran over three centuries. Drawing on years of research
conducted in both countries – including access to Iranian
government archives rarely available to Western scholars – he
leads us through the four seasons of US-Iranian relations: from the
spring of mutual fascination, where Iran, sick of duplicitous
Britain and Russia interfering in its affairs, sought a
relationship with the United States, to the long, dark winter of
hatred that we are yet to see end. A revealing account, America and
Iran lays bare when, where and how it all went wrong – and why it
didn’t have to be this way.
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.
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 the world's newest energy hot spot.
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