Axworthy’s reasoned survey will be especially helpful to lay readers and students of Arab history.
Sweeping, sensitive and evenhanded overview of the ancient nation, from the days of the prophet Zoroaster to those of the Islamic Republic.
Former British foreign-service officer and Iranian historian Axworthy (The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant, 2006) covers an enormous amount of material in elegant, upbeat fashion. Aware of the country’s accomplishments without being blind to its failings, he emphasizes Iran’s diversity, noting that nearly half the population is made up of ethnic Azeris, Kurds, Gilakis, Buluchis and Turkmen, and that its native tongue, Farsi, is the sole Indo-European language in the Arab-speaking Middle East. Called Persia until the Reza Shah promoted an official name change in 1935, the nation formed its identity from nomadic migrations imbued with the spirit of Zoroastrianism. This early form of monotheism offered a new concept of heaven and hell, and of the free human choice between good and evil, that exerted a huge influence on later religions, Axworthy asserts. In the sixth century BCE, tribes coalesced around the first royal house, founded by Cyrus and extended by his conquering descendants, Darius et al. The empire’s magnificent capital, Persepolis, was burned by the victorious Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. Successive dynasties jockeyed for power and battled with the Roman Empire, while Persian poets created such heroic works as Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (“The Epic of Kings”), as significant to Iranian culture as Shakespeare is to the West. Islamic incursion occurred gradually, and Axworthy cogently dissects the Sunni/Shi’a schism that roils Islam today. His wide-ranging, in-depth knowledge of the Middle East enriches his analysis of the Pahlavi dynasty and the revolution of 1979. “The deeper, reflective, humane Iran is still there beneath the threatening media headlines,” he opines, and its citizens are gearing up for a more significant role in the world community.
Axworthy’s reasoned survey will be especially helpful to lay readers and students of Arab history.Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-465-00888-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
