I was motivated to follow you by your article on Maryam Nasr-Esfahani. I read her complete talk at Vazn e Donya which you linked to in your article. Her ideas about horizontal connections and everyday peace fit well with my own thinking about how social change will be ultimately driven.
I lived in Iran from 1972 until the end of 1980 and have followed the country very closely ever since.
I love your reading list and will get into many of the books you recommend.
I would add an excellent book written by a woman, though not an Iranian woman. It is "Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran" by Laura Secor. It is absolutely one of the best books on the reform movement - with excellent background on how Iran got to the reform period and in-depth stories of some of the lesser known heroes of that movement. Laura made 6-7 trips to Iran about a decade ago and spoke with those profiled in her book.
Welcome Maryam and glad you subscribed! Every list has to leave out many many many good books. What’s great is that readers like you can add to it through comments such as yours. Thanks for sharing the books you would recommend.
Arash Azizi’s book on the life of Ghasem Soleimani is an important one for us the Iranians, to learn about how we are also implicated in what our government did to the region especially to Syria.
I am a new reader of your blog, very new!
I was motivated to follow you by your article on Maryam Nasr-Esfahani. I read her complete talk at Vazn e Donya which you linked to in your article. Her ideas about horizontal connections and everyday peace fit well with my own thinking about how social change will be ultimately driven.
I lived in Iran from 1972 until the end of 1980 and have followed the country very closely ever since.
I love your reading list and will get into many of the books you recommend.
I would add an excellent book written by a woman, though not an Iranian woman. It is "Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran" by Laura Secor. It is absolutely one of the best books on the reform movement - with excellent background on how Iran got to the reform period and in-depth stories of some of the lesser known heroes of that movement. Laura made 6-7 trips to Iran about a decade ago and spoke with those profiled in her book.
I look forward to reading more of your posts.
chris fischer
chrisfischer344@gmail.com
Welcome! Thank you for the comment and for recommending Laura’s book. Hope you enjoy reading the books.
Wow! Thank you for this. Very timely and helpful offering and invitation.
"Good historians know how to de-essentialize our firmly held beliefs that things were always the way we think they are now." Yes!
Maybe you have a very professional and deep hisytorical view, but I think book stories and movies are the best window to the culture and women life.
So I recommend you to read "Goli Taraghi","Zoya Pirzad","Fariba Vafi", for these past decades and meny books from other writers (women and men).
I'm your a new subscriber from Iran. I was wondering whay some of very good books are not it your list. For example:
-Amanat, Abbas. Iran: A Modern History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.
-Abrahamian, Ervand. A History of Modern Iran. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Welcome Maryam and glad you subscribed! Every list has to leave out many many many good books. What’s great is that readers like you can add to it through comments such as yours. Thanks for sharing the books you would recommend.
Arash Azizi’s book on the life of Ghasem Soleimani is an important one for us the Iranians, to learn about how we are also implicated in what our government did to the region especially to Syria.