The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution (new edition)

A smooth reading experience, informative and to the point. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a microscopic as well as a bird’s eye view of life and career of Hoveyda.

Mr Milani has done it again...a great contribution to an unbiased understanding of political landscape before the iranian revolution. This is a great book to read for every iranian who has lived during this period and were bombarded by biased information through various organisations...

It was a very interesting book, but now that I've read more about the reign of the Shah it seems evident that Hoveyda's career was considerably darker than the book portrays. He reigned as prime minister during many years of extreme corruption, and this isn't really dealt with in the book.

I bought it as a used but it was newer than new :D

I was drawn to this book because I thought that learning about one influential person's life would help me understand a larger time in history. Throughout the reading of this book, I became impressed with Milani's descriptive vocabulary. He made his accounts of history come alive. I feel like the book ends abruptly. But the ending mirrors the ending of Hoveyda himself. I am American and born just before the Iranian Revolution, so I did not know much about Hoyveda before reading this book. Now, my heart goes how to him and his family and friends. It also goes out to what the Iranians must have endured before the revolution, and after. What life has taught me is that there are many sides to every story. This book does an excellent job of portraying that.

Mr. Milani described Hovaida"s personality very well. very enjoyable book. full of details .

Well written oral history

A very good book to read, and learn from the past, a lot of research has been done for this book. I hope more historians write like this writer,write abou facts, instead of trying to prof their own point of view.

Just finished reading this book. Gives a fantastic insight into the pre revolution system. It was a joy to read and the old photographs really help the reader connect to the main characters.

Abbas Milani's book is an objective analysis of complex biography of Hoveyda. It paints a portrait of Iran's attempt at modernisation under dictatorship of the Shah, and the role of Hoveyda as the longest serving premier and his tragic end.

Das Buch ist sehr interessant und entspricht, soviel ich verstehe, der Wahrheit.das Buch trägt sehr zum Verständnis bei.ich empfehle es voll.