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The Guardians' Republic
Paperback
General Political ScienceIran History
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Publisher: E.B Cohen
Pages: 432
Weight: 0.94
Height: 0.96 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Three thousand years of Persian power, faith, and survival - in one definitive volume.
For more than four decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has defied easy explanation. It is at once an ancient civilization and a revolutionary theocracy, a sophisticated society and a security state, a regional superpower and a regime at war with its own people. To understand it, you have to understand everything that came before.
The Guardians' Republic tells the whole story - arguably the longest continuous political history on earth - in a single, gripping narrative that runs from Cyrus the Great to the violent, uncertain present.
Inside, you will discover:
- How the empire of Cyrus freed the Jews and created a model of tolerant rule still invoked today
- Why Iran became Shia - and how one decision in 1501 set it apart from every neighbor since
- The 1953 coup, the fall of the Shah, and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini
- How the theocracy actually works - the Supreme Leader, the Revolutionary Guard, the hidden economy, the prisons
- The shadow empire of proxies from Hezbollah to the Houthis - how it was built, and how it was broken
- The nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz, and the long confrontation with Israel and the United States
- The women, the young, and the protesters who have refused to be silenced
- The cascade of blows since 2024 - the decapitation of Hezbollah, the fall of Assad, the 12-Day War, and the leadership crisis that followed
Sober, sourced, and sweeping, this is the definitive popular history of how Iran became what it is - and what may come next.
Perfect for readers of Kim Ghattas's Black Wave, Ray Takeyh's Guardians of the Revolution, and Michael Axworthy's A History of Iran - and for anyone seeking to understand the Middle East's most consequential, and most misunderstood, nation.
The country that refuses to be understood. Finally explained.
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