About the Author

Ray Takeyh is the Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former State Department official.

Reviews

"An original interpretation that puts Iranian actors where they belong: at center stage."—Michael Doran, Wall Street Journal

“An extraordinary account...Takeyh delivers a deeply nuanced and eloquent history of the shah.”—Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post 

“A timely offering...The narrative that emerges is woven together using a wealth of primary and secondary sources.”—Kevjn Lim, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs

“A sober, fair-minded assessment, enabled by perspectives afforded by both the passage of time and increasingly accessible archives.”—Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs

"Books on twentieth century Iran abound, but none deliver the substance or the insight that Ray Takeyh does. For the clearest view of Iran for the last 100 years, this book is it."—Marvin Zonis, author of Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah

“Ray Takeyh’s astute and provocative study of the last Shah of Iran sheds new light on the Cold-War foreign policy of the United States, the impact of individual personalities on the course of history, and the causes of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, with which the world has now had to live for more than four decades.”—Michael Mandelbaum, author of The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth

“Ray Takeyh has compellingly written the prequel to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s forty-year confrontation with the United States.  He tells this fascinating story with unmatched perspicacity and insight all while restoring the agency of Iranian participants in this frequently tragic tale.  Anyone who wants to understand the current impasse with Iran will have to come to grips with the arguments he makes and the issues he illuminates.”—Eric Edelman, former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, 2005-2009

“In The Last Shah Takeyh sets the record straight on the history of US-Iran relations.”—Hussain Abdul-Hussain