Blood and Oil: Memoirs of a Persian Prince

Anyone who views Iran merely as a nation of Muslim fanatics should read this riveting exposition of its tortuous 20th-century history. Born in 1917 into an aristocratic Iranian family, Manucher Farmanfarmaian served his country in the treacherous world of petroleum production and distribution–the source, he believes, of the disastrous Western meddling that indirectly led to the 1979 fundamentalist revolution. Writing with his journalist daughter, Farmanfarmaian details Iran’s labyrinthine internal politics and international relations with thoroughness enlivened by muscular prose, a sharp eye for character, and lots of good anecdotes.