An astute and generous portrayal of both sides of the negotiating table.
The president of the National Iranian American Council probes the reasons behind the diplomatic success of the recent nuclear deal with Iran and the lifting of sanctions.
A self-described longtime advocate of diplomacy, Parsi (A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran, 2012, etc.) enthusiastically embraces the breaking of the hostile status quo over the last three decades between the U.S. and Iran. In this knowledgeable survey of the “mutual demonization and intense geopolitical rivalry” between the two countries since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the author works through the stages that led to the recent diplomatic breakthrough, which occurred against all odds and in the face of vociferous criticism from Israel and Republican hawks in the U.S. Since the defeat of Saddam Hussein and Iraq, Israel believed strongly that it was in its interest to isolate Iran; this persistent “existential threat” to Israel would derail any peace initiatives, as reinforced by the potent pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. However, as Parsi delineates carefully, the 2003 invasion of Iraq began to change the American-led order in the Middle East because it failed so disastrously—and turned out to be “a blessing in disguise” for Iran. President Barack Obama’s accession to power came at a time of public war fatigue, and his emphasis on “soft power” and diplomacy caught Iran off guard. Could the U.S. actually be trusted? Parsi looks closely at how Benjamin Netanyahu’s relentless efforts to derail any détente between Washington and Tehran completely backfired. The new U.N. sanctions of 2010 were not having the desired restrictive effects on Iran’s ability to enrich uranium or build centrifuges, but diplomacy eventually would, particularly the behind-the-scenes work between Sen. John Kerry and several Omani go-betweens. Moreover, the surprising 2013 election of the centrist Hassan Rouhani, who proved to be “the Sheikh of Diplomacy,” further challenged the status quo.
An astute and generous portrayal of both sides of the negotiating table.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-300-21816-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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