Axis of Empire: A History of Iran-US Relations

by Afshin Matin-Asgari

A chronicle of US imperialism’s century-long interaction with Iran’s successive regimes and people

The story of imperialism and resistance from the nineteenth century to the age of Trump, told in six gripping chapters each filled with ironic plot twists and colorful actors. Matin-Asgari tells the dramatic story of how America’s missionaries and educators, oilmen and CIA agents, scholars and arms dealers, diplomats and presidents. He shows how their Middle East misadventures entangled with ordinary Iranian men and women, entrepreneurs and industrial workers, nationalists and communists, students abroad and diaspora communities, shahs and ayatollahs. The book takes a fresh take on familiar the Cold War and the Iranian Revolution, the Hostage Crisis and the Iran-Iraq war, and decades of onerous American sanctions on Iran. its labyrinthine tales of yet another American imperial misadventure.

304 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication January 20, 2026