2.5 stars

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was the last Shah (king) of Iran. He ruled for 37 years, starting during the Second World War, and continued until the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In some ways, he was trying to modernize Iran (religious freedom, women’s rights), but he resisted democratizing the country.

I found much of it dry. There was a lot of politics, attempts to oust the Prime Minister and vice versa, foreign negotiations with the USA and Britain. There wasn’t as much biography as I was expecting; it was more political history than anything. It was long; technically, under 500 pages, but the font was very small, so it took longer to read than I’d hoped. There was a lot of information I didn’t know about Iran, so I did learn some things. I do feel like some photos would have been nice to be included in the book, but there were none. ( )