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List Price: $44.95 | | Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Salesrank: 32168
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Editorial Review:
As the 25th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution approached, Abbas Milani realized that very little, if any, attention had been given to the entire prerevolutionary generation. Political upheavals and a tradition of neglecting the history of past regimes have resulted in a cultural memory loss, erasing the contributions of a generation of individuals. Eminent Persians seeks to rectify that loss. Milani's groundbreaking portrait of modern Iran reveals the country's rich history through the lives of the men and women who forged it. Consisting of 150 profiles of the most important innovators in Iran between World War II and the Islamic Revolution, the book includes politicians, entrepreneurs, poets, artists, and thinkers who brought Iran into the modern era with brilliant success and sometimes terrible consequences. The biographies and essays weave a richly textured tapestry of lives, ideas, and events that reveals the true story of these decades in the life of a nation.
The two volumes are divided into sections on politics, economics, and culture, each accompanied by an introductory essay that places the individual stories in their broader historical context. Drawn from interviews, extensive archival material, and private correspondence, Eminent Persians is a treasure trove of original documents, many appearing in print for the first time. Detailed sketches of personalities and personal foibles offer a compelling and highly readable account of this remarkable period of history on a human scale.
Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran, 1941-1979 (2 Volume Set) Reviews:
A joy to read 
2009-11-25 - I highly recommend these books. As always, Dr. Millani has done a great job. I only wished Mohammed Reza Shah Phalavi, was inc;uded in the list.
Good, Bad & Ugly - What History is About!
2009-09-20 - Dr. Abbas Milani is without a doubt a great historian of Contemporary Iran, just as Dr. Kaveh Farrokh is a great historian of Ancient Iran. Future Iran will owe much to them! Their writings are well researched and well documented histories narrated based on the modern rules of journalism, telling "good, bad and ugly". This is how history should be narrated. The only perspectives found in their writings are Persians' viewpoints, and also their quests for a future Iranian democracy.
"Eminent Persians" is another fantastic work of Dr. Milani about the men and women who made history in Iran of the 20th century to 1979 (those whose contributions whether good or bad would not be otherwise known to the future Iran, if not documented), eminent figures such as politicians, scientists, woman activists, religious scholars (Zoroastrians, Secularists, Muslims, Bahais, Jews, Christians, others), athletes, poets, industrialists and many others.
Michael Navabi
Persians deserve better. 
2009-07-04 - I guess all books have an agenda. Who knows what agenda's this unbalanced book has. I give it 1 star because it is effective in pursuing propaganda, while not being particularly fair.
People with limited knowledge on Iranians during this period will sadly be the most misled and should know that the book does not accurately represent history due to both what it says and leaves out.
Leaving out leaders that had an immense impact on modern Iran makes this a work of fiction in a way also. Consider reading a book about "the leaders of the USA who made America during world war 2" and having the author leave out President Roosevelt, General Ike and Admiral Nimitz, but include Chester Bowles, who I admit was somewhat significant.
Persians deserve the best not this.
Excellent book 
2009-05-07 - What was the "White Revolution"? Who established SAVAK? What happened to Mossadegh? I was born in Iran and always learned different aspects of what actually happened in our history depending on the regime. At school, we always learned that Shah was an angel who was send to save the country. After the revolution, all we learned was that he was a liar and a "foreign puppet". This book gave me a clear idea of who were the brilliant individuals who built the infrastructure in Iran and turned it into an (almost) independent country. I definitely encourage everyone to read these books.
Disappointing
2009-05-01 - It is very disappointing that the author has presented a false and biased assessment of the men and women he writes about. His poorly written, poorly researched and poorly argued account of the men and women he calls Eminent Persians shows personal vendetta to some and exaggerated devotion to others.
It seems as though the author faces an internal struggle: on the one hand, he feels that some of these personalities are too important to ignore, and yet on the other hand he feels it necessary to diminish their accomplishments and tarnish their legacy. Even though he very reluctantly gives credit where credit is due somehow he always ends up defending and crediting the deposed monarchy. In this effort he even goes to extreme measures of denying well known and established historical facts.
Most offensive is that the author pretends to know so much about these men and women to psychoanalyze them and make judgment about their character.
This book is a colossal failure in giving the reader a credible outlook on contemporary Iranian history; it lacks historical insight and is full of unsupported opinion.
