TEHRAN – “Oil Crisis in Iran: From Nationalism to Coup d’Etat” by the Iranian-American historian of the Middle East Ervand Abrahamian has been published in Persian by the Ney publishing house.

Originally published by Cambridge University Press in 2021, the book has been translated by Mohammad-Ebrahim Fattahi.

Focusing on the turbulent twenty-eight months between April 1951 and August 1953, this book, based on recently declassified CIA and U.S. State Department documents from the Mossadeq administration tells the story of the Iranian oil crisis, which would culminate in the coup of August 1953. 

Throwing fresh light on U.S. involvement in Iran, Ervand Abrahamian reveals exactly how immersed the U.S. was in internal Iranian politics long before the 1953 coup, in parliamentary politics and even in saving the monarchy in 1952. 

By weighing rival explanations for the coup, from internal discontent to a fear of communism and oil nationalization, Abrahamian shows how the Truman and Eisenhower administrations did not differ significantly in their policies towards Mossadeq, and how the surprising main obstacle to an earlier coup was the shah himself. 

In tracing the key involvement of the U.S. and CIA in Iran, this study shows how the 1953 coup would eventually pave the way to the 1979 Iranian revolution, two of the most significant and widely studied episodes of modern Iranian history.

A Persian translation of Abrahamian’s book “Iran Between Two Revolutions” by Fattahi was published by Ney in February.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Ervand Abrahamian’s book “Oil Crisis in Iran”.

MMS/YAW