America and Iran: A History 1720 to the Present (Alfred A. Knopf), by John Ghazvinian

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Author John Ghazvinian begins by reminding readers that Iran was once America’s favorite Middle Eastern nation and its ruler, the shah, was an unfailing ally. Americans older than 60 will recall this, but few know that the U.S. was once Iran’s favorite Western nation.

Iran’s problem with the U.S. traces back to the 1953 CIA-backed coup that toppled the country’s democratically elected prime minister and allowed the shah to assume dictatorial power. From America’s standpoint, it was about unfettered access to the country’s oil. In December 1977, President Jimmy Carter raised a toast to the shah, praising Iran as “an island of stability in one of the more troubled regions of the world.” One week later a revolution broke out that drove the shah from power. As Ayatollah Khomeini gathered control over what began as a largely secular revolt, angry students seized the U.S. embassy, took hostages and the unhealthy deep freeze between America and Iran took hold.

With America and Iran, Ghazvinian, executive director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Middle East Center, catalogs friendly gestures between the two nations dating from the 1700s. His tone is optimistic. All that needs to happen, he seems to say, is for both sides to put away a few misconceptions. While he is correct in identifying the stultifying influence of the anti-Iran lobby in the U.S.—and its counterparts in Israel and Saudi Arabia—he underplays the role of Iran’s hardliners in perpetuating an anti-American line. He may be right that most Iranians want to like America, but most Iranians have little control over their nation’s direction as things stand. America and Iran is illuminating for what it says about the past but less helpful when predicting the future.