Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Iran (Complete Idiot's Guides (Lifestyle Paperback))

by JosephTragert (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $23.50

  It was once known as Persia, a beautiful, mysterious land. The nation now known as Iran leaped to contemporary Americans' attention with the 1979 Islamic revolution that deposed the Shah and made hostages of the personnel at the American embassy in the capital, Tehran. The Complete Idiot's Guide (R) to Understanding Iran, from Joseph Tragert, author of Alpha's hugely successful The Complete Idiot's Guide (R) to Understanding Iraq, explores the country's origins, from its long and turbulent beginnings as ancient Persia and its transformation into modern Iran. The author covers the rise of the Ayatollahs and Islamic fundamentalism; the 1979 revolution and the subsequent hostage crisis; the Iran-Iraq war; the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration; Iran's sponsorship of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas; and how evidence of Iran's nuclear weapons program affects its relationship with the world in general-both now and in the years to come. With a younger generation now chafing under the hard-line mullahs' social repression, the situation grows more volatile each day. The Complete Idiot's Guide (R) to Understanding Iran will be a detailed, comprehensive, and unbiased overview of this complex but often fascinating land.