A History of Iran

Empire of the Mind

By: Michael Axworthy

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Although frequently vilified, Iran is a nation of great intellectual variety and depth, and one of the oldest continuing civilizations in the world. Its political impact has been tremendous, not only on its neighbors in the Middle East but also throughout the world. From the time of the prophet Zoroaster, to the powerful ancient Persian Empires, to the revolution of 1979, the hostage crisis, and the current standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Michael Axworthy vividly depicts the nation’s rich history. He explains clearly and carefully both the complex succession of dynasties that ruled ancient Iran and the surprising ethnic diversity of the modern country, held together by a common culture. With Iran again the focus of the world’s attention, A History of Iran is an essential guide to understanding this volatile nation.

©2008 Michael Axworthy (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Lazy Narration

It's a 4 star book. Narration was great as far as voice acting is concerned, but the narrator kept on unnecessarily and even pretentiously trying to pull off an "authentic" pronunciation when uttering an Iranian word or name, while having no idea what the Persian language sounds like. I'll go over a few of the many:

1) He insistently over-pronounced every 'h' consonant as in an Arabic 'hard h', while anyone having picked up a rudimentary sense of Persian phonetics from having heard a conversation or two would know that it doesn't have a hard h.

2) The familiar French loan word "montage" (pronounced "montaazh" in Persian) was pronounced "montazeh", obviously confusing the 'zh' consonant with a distinct 'z' and 'h'.

3) Even recently prominent proper names (like "Ahmadinejad") regularly featured in the news were mispronounced.

This is not a librivox recording that you'd do for free as a hobby. You are paid for this and should act professionally and responsibly. Put in some effort, do your homework.

Extremely biased, not a good historical survey.

At first, I thought this was a pretty good book. It started out and spent a decent amount of time going into detail about the Achaemenid empire. Oddly enough, the author even covers the Qajar dynasty, which many books skim over. Unfortunately, it became extremely obvious the author was biased once the 1900s arrived. As soon as the author began to describe the Pahlavi dynasty, the blame game began. Everything is the fault of the British, US, and the evil capitalists.

For a book about Iranian history, it's incredible that the author spends about 10 minutes talking about H.I.M. Muhammad Reza Shah. Even if someone hates what the Shah did or stood for, no historical record of Iran could be complete without spending at least an entire chapter on the time period between 1900 and 1979.

To make matters worse, the author actually appears to be a supporter of the post-79 regime that has murdered so many, and destroyed the nation.

Another aspect of the book that is bad is that the author's personal feelings towards American leaders, notably Republican George Bush, is obviously very negative. When I'm listening to a book about Iranian history, the last thing I want to hear is the author's personal feelings. Especially anti-American rhetoric.

The author mistakingly states that before Obama, no one had tried to talk or negotiate with Iran. This is absolutely false, as every single US President has made many attempts to communicate and in fact, negotiate with the monsters.

The only way that this book makes sense is if the author is an IRGC employee. The nonsense at the end about the nuclear investigations makes it very clear that he is biased or simply on the regime's payroll.

If you want to read a good, historical record about Iran, pick up a copy of Amir Taheri's The Persian Night.

Good book, bad narration

The story and history is really interesting. Unfortunately, the narrator doesn't speak the language, so the accent and pronunciation were hard to bear.

Awesome read

Very insightful great historical record from start to present. No disappointments here. Especially enjoyed the account of transition from Zoroastrianism to Islam

well balanced overview of Iranian history

Good overview of Iran from its ancient history to the Green Revolution. The author goes beyond discussing historical events and gives particular interest to Iranian poetry, minorities in Iran, and the history of US involvement in Iran.

Weak close

Biased toward the theocracy at the end. A grater focus on pre-twentieth century history wouls have been uaeful.

One of the best book in covering Iran histoy

Not only it covet the history, it also provide I formation on the intellectual tradition, the Shia Islam and the impact of farsi as a language of literature.

a complete and detailed history of Iran

a complete and detailed history of Iran. ... well explained and analyzed, and well narrated

Read by an AI

The narrator sounded like an AI voice. There was no feeling or inflection in his voice. I know this is a history book, but give me some kind of modulation in the voice. The subject was very well covered. Most of the time poetry does not interest me. In this book, however, I was facinated by its affect on the history of Iran and prehaps motivated to read some.

Excellent overview but atrocious pronunciation

I enjoyed this book thoroughly but cringed at the narrator's atrocious Persian pronunciation. No offence to Peter Ganim but he had no basic understanding of how to begin to pronounce Persian - no sense of syllables let alone the sounds "gh" and "kh". This is not a criticism of an accent (would have welcomed a simple accent) but the narrator rendered any and all Persian words incomprehensible to even a fluent speaker. I could not make out the Persian words and phrases after several rewinds.

The producers should have sought another reader for the Persian poems and names or could have coached Peter Ganim on how to pronounce Persian. A big let down for an otherwise solid overview of Iran's history. I'd listen to some chapters again but am daunted by further assault on my ears.

To treat the language of Ferdowsi, Hafez, and Rumi with such disrespect reflects poorly on an author who clearly had a profound understanding and respect for Iran and its culture.