Book Review: The Shah by Abbas Milani

If a definitive record on the last Shah of Iran were needed, then look no further than this composition by Abbas Milani. As a political science and head of Iranian Studies professor at Stanford, I have had the fortunate opportunity to directly study and personally know Professor Milani. He is truly an erudite of Iranian history, culture, and politics. Nowhere is that knowledge better reflected than in this book, which effectively analyzes the Shah as both a ruler and person. The final verdict of the Shah’s rule is mixed amongst the Iranian population and diaspora (and so is mine). Yet I agree with Milani’s assessment of the last king: a person who loved Iran yet was not the ruler the country needed as it entered a rapidly changing world. From his birth to his death, this book shows the Shah through the consequential stages of his life and shaky grasp on power. Simultaneously, the reader senses an Iran changing alongside him: urbanization, secularization, and capitalism coming into direct clash with the old ways of rural life, Islam, and fuedalism. The end result is the quick yet unsurprising end of rule for the last king.