Saikal clear objective is to present a distanced and even-handed portrait of what is by any measure a remarkable performance in politics and theocracy; Iran Rising is calm and methodical in its broad-view assessment of such more recent figures as Ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose pivotal presidency is given a more searching and intelligent (albeit necessarily abridged) analysis in these pages than it has yet received in English ... the book’s effort at conceptual neutrality can sometimes, to put it mildly, feel a bit strained ... Iran Rising describes a 'very turbulent journey' in an inevitable tandem: Iran’s relations with the United States are never far from center stage, and American readers may find elements of Saikal’s even-handedness a kind of default apologia that’s tough to square with the facts. But the book’s complete lack of the cheap partisan rhetoric that so often infuses this subject will have those same readers thinking deeply and sometimes re-assessing to the last pages.
a critical but not unsympathetic perspective on the 'unique and multi-dimensional, and at times tragic, theopolitical story' of Iran ... Saikal’s convincing bottom line is that open confrontation with Iran is unwise and unlikely to be productive, whereas a policy of careful engagement, while risky, could enable progress on the margins. The author’s careful, analytic approach privileges trade statistics and governmental communiqués over stories of human interest; as such, this is for readers who seek an understanding of strategic considerations, rather than a sense of what daily life is like for the Iranian population.
