A brilliant volume, standing head and shoulders above many on the nationalization of oil and the 1953 Anglo-American coup in Iran. . . . Carefully documented. . . . Excellent. Making full use of the recently opened archives of the British Foreign Office, Elm has written a meticulous but highly readable account of the crisis. . . . Excellent. An important contribution not only to our knowledge of modern Iranian history, but also to an understanding of imperialism . . . the product of a scholarly, engaged investigation that benefits from the knowledge and experience of a man who has lived through both the painful episodes of August 1953 and the revolution of February 1979, and who sees a direct correlation between the two. An impressive work of scholarship by an Iranian economist and former diplomat [showing how] the CIA-orchestrated coup, followed by U.S. backing of the dictatorial Shah, planted the seeds of the 1978 Iranian Revolution, which in turn gave rise to Islamic fundamentalism.