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Axis of Empire: A History of Iran-US Relations
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.
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
Published January 20, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 22, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
NetGalley needs to figure out some way to let me read books and copy-paste because this is the kind of book I wanted to annotate but couldn't because I definitely am not going to switch back and forth between programs and type out sentences or entire paragraphs for basically every single page of this book. And as I read this out of interest and not because I need this information for my research, it simply wasn't worth the commitment. But the day I can import NetGalley files to Zotero is going to be the day I do a happy dance.
Why is this relevant to this specific book, you ask? Well. It's relevant to nonfiction on here more generally, but as mentioned, this book had a lot of information I wanted to note down for myself so I would be able to easily access it in the future without rereading the entire book. It was a very informative account of US-Iran relations, though I have to admit I barely knew anything about the topic before so it's not very difficult to be very informative for me in that regard. It was well-sourced, neutral and stuck to the facts, which is very appreciated. I'd definitely have to read more and wider on the topic to be able to judge this book better, but from my uninformed perspective, this seems like a really good introduction that includes all the relevant information.
NetGalley needs to figure out some way to let me read books and copy-paste because this is the kind of book I wanted to annotate but couldn't because I definitely am not going to switch back and forth between programs and type out sentences or entire paragraphs for basically every single page of this book. And as I read this out of interest and not because I need this information for my research, it simply wasn't worth the commitment. But the day I can import NetGalley files to Zotero is going to be the day I do a happy dance.
Why is this relevant to this specific book, you ask? Well. It's relevant to nonfiction on here more generally, but as mentioned, this book had a lot of information I wanted to note down for myself so I would be able to easily access it in the future without rereading the entire book. It was a very informative account of US-Iran relations, though I have to admit I barely knew anything about the topic before so it's not very difficult to be very informative for me in that regard. It was well-sourced, neutral and stuck to the facts, which is very appreciated. I'd definitely have to read more and wider on the topic to be able to judge this book better, but from my uninformed perspective, this seems like a really good introduction that includes all the relevant information.
March 9, 2026
8/10
"Israel alone cannot bring down the Islamic Republic through warfare, unless the United States joins an all-out invasion of Iran, an unlikely scenario given its catastrophically destabilizing economic and political consequences for the whole region."
This sentence is the biggest flaw in the book, which immediately makes it outdated despite its release two months ago. Otherwise a great book outlining how the US's imperialism and encroachment on the region became a convenient excuse for the Islamic Republic's state-building project and search for legitimacy. It also outlines how the IR relies so much on open imperialist and monarchist ambitions to build internal support, accuse dissenters of imperialist allegiance, and consolidate power.
"Israel alone cannot bring down the Islamic Republic through warfare, unless the United States joins an all-out invasion of Iran, an unlikely scenario given its catastrophically destabilizing economic and political consequences for the whole region."
This sentence is the biggest flaw in the book, which immediately makes it outdated despite its release two months ago. Otherwise a great book outlining how the US's imperialism and encroachment on the region became a convenient excuse for the Islamic Republic's state-building project and search for legitimacy. It also outlines how the IR relies so much on open imperialist and monarchist ambitions to build internal support, accuse dissenters of imperialist allegiance, and consolidate power.
April 2, 2026
This book was good. I still think that Vali Nasr's 2025 book Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History is the best single volume work for understanding Iran's foreign policy and its own perception of its national interests. This book is also similar to America and Iran: A History 1720 to the Present, writing the history from early encounters between the Americans and Iranians to the oil geopolitics of WWII into the Cold War, the 1953 coup, the rule of the Shah, and then the Islamic Revolution. Like Ghazvinian, Matin-Asgari places the majority of blame for the US-Iran dysfunction on the U.S., though he is a bit tougher on the Islamic Republic than Ghazvinian. One thing this book does well is showing how Iranian perceptions of America were largely positive before the overthrow of Mossadegh. I wish that he spent a bit less time on the Cold War and Pahlavi regime and wrote more about the current conflict and post-revolutionary life, his chapters on Iran after 1979 are relatively short. I recommend this book for anyone interested in understanding Iran.
April 15, 2026
This was a very good read, and very timely and important for what is going on in the world right now. I, like many Americans, didn’t have a lot of baseline knowledge of Iranian and American relations, and adding all of this historical context is important when trying to make sense of where we are today. I recommend this to anyone seeking to increase their knowledge of Iran and how American imperialism has shaped the conflict we find ourselves in today.
April 3, 2026
Depressing reading. But very, very useful. This history of the full arc of US-Iranian relations is not a happy story. It's one of growing Iranian strength, but continuing US mystification at how to approach the country. Generations of US missionaries, businesspeople and war hawks have figured out how to profit off of the country, without really understanding it, or ever reaching any of their professed goals.
As Matin-Asgari capably documents, the initial missionaries and modernizing do-gooders never got what they wanted. Iran turned neither Christian nor democratic for any length of time. The missionaries found a different niche, as educators and providers of medical services. It gave them something to do, and something to justify their work to their benefactors, but there weren't a lot of souls being saved.
After the second world war, the US moved in to try to exploit Iran for oil and so much more. In Iran we hoped to prove that real development was possible without Communism. To do that we backed a deeply illegitimate ruler. Despite being on the other side of the world, a great deal of US prestige became wrapped up in the success or failure of the Shah. Tens of thousands of US nationals were on the ground by the late 1970s, attempting to build up every aspect of Iran. Some of these ventures were somewhat successful, but the overarching goal was failed. With the 1979 revolution, Iran became an enemy of the United States, not an ally. That military we spent so much to build up is being used against us as we speak.
The author spends most of the book on the US relationship with the Shah. It may be a little more than most want to know. But it is the central drama of Iran's 20th century, and it may represent the peak of US-Iranian involvement. Or does it?
Iran has been far more useful to the US government as an enemy than it ever was as an ally. The country has become central to the Pentagon's demonology, and more than one of the trillions of debt the US war department has racked up can be attributed to US propaganda about Iran. All of the US and Israel's worst crimes are justified by the "threat" of Iran. Matin-Asgari lays out the history behind this threat manufacture, and illustrates just how silly a lot of the story is. The Pentagon has thought about fighting Iran for decades. Now that we've actually come down to it, we're proving that the US foreign policy establishment has no more idea how to defeat Iran than it did how to convert it or how to build it up under the Shah.
It's a pathetic story, really. The United States continually tries to mold Iran into a shape we find useful, and we keep failing. The only silver lining is that Iran gets stronger and stronger with each iteration of the story. Hopefully one day soon Iran will no longer be weak enough for us to continue to push around.
As Matin-Asgari capably documents, the initial missionaries and modernizing do-gooders never got what they wanted. Iran turned neither Christian nor democratic for any length of time. The missionaries found a different niche, as educators and providers of medical services. It gave them something to do, and something to justify their work to their benefactors, but there weren't a lot of souls being saved.
After the second world war, the US moved in to try to exploit Iran for oil and so much more. In Iran we hoped to prove that real development was possible without Communism. To do that we backed a deeply illegitimate ruler. Despite being on the other side of the world, a great deal of US prestige became wrapped up in the success or failure of the Shah. Tens of thousands of US nationals were on the ground by the late 1970s, attempting to build up every aspect of Iran. Some of these ventures were somewhat successful, but the overarching goal was failed. With the 1979 revolution, Iran became an enemy of the United States, not an ally. That military we spent so much to build up is being used against us as we speak.
The author spends most of the book on the US relationship with the Shah. It may be a little more than most want to know. But it is the central drama of Iran's 20th century, and it may represent the peak of US-Iranian involvement. Or does it?
Iran has been far more useful to the US government as an enemy than it ever was as an ally. The country has become central to the Pentagon's demonology, and more than one of the trillions of debt the US war department has racked up can be attributed to US propaganda about Iran. All of the US and Israel's worst crimes are justified by the "threat" of Iran. Matin-Asgari lays out the history behind this threat manufacture, and illustrates just how silly a lot of the story is. The Pentagon has thought about fighting Iran for decades. Now that we've actually come down to it, we're proving that the US foreign policy establishment has no more idea how to defeat Iran than it did how to convert it or how to build it up under the Shah.
It's a pathetic story, really. The United States continually tries to mold Iran into a shape we find useful, and we keep failing. The only silver lining is that Iran gets stronger and stronger with each iteration of the story. Hopefully one day soon Iran will no longer be weak enough for us to continue to push around.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Many stories have been shared around the bonfire of US-Iran relations. Coup d’états sponsored by American interests. Embassy officials held captive for months. Flames of political upheaval crushed, no matter if the sparks were ignited within the Iranian homeland or from foreign winds blowing across the Atlantic. The governments of Iran and the United States have both benefited from the smog of these fires, with each country able to paint the other as their bogeyman. The precise history of these relations, offered here by Afshin Matin-Asgari, demonstrates a path forward through the smoke.
The government of the United States has always been motivated by self-interest when building relations with Iran. The pursuit of oil profits and a strong military presence in Iran led to the U.S. seeking not just influence but control of the Iranian state, even if that meant taking less-than-democratic measures. Axis of Empire highlights the many attempts and eras of the United States’ grip of power in Iran, and the suffering that Iranians experienced because of it.
It’s also important to understand that the damage caused by the American empire’s grasp is used as a political tool of oppression within Iran. While the Iranian Revolution represented the powerful rejection of the regime of the ruthless and US-backed Shah, what arrived in its place was not the liberation Iranians had marched for. The Islamic Republic has often used domestic strife, such as the US Embassy hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq War, to consolidate power and crush political dissent. Brutality of this shade is often justified with a finger pointed at the recent past, at the United States’ destructive political and cultural influence that still lurks in the shadows of Tehran. Asgari questions these justifications of the Islamic Republic without cutting any slack for the United States and its allies in the region.
With international sanctions tightening and bunker bombs increasingly let loose on Iran, many nations are still captive to the delusion that Iranian citizens must suffer for the regime that oppresses them. Axis of Empire is an analysis of the complex relations of the country of Iran and the empire of America, and there are only complex solutions. Iran must maintain its sovereignty without silencing the voices and mandate of its people. America, as in many other corners of its empire, must realize that no amount of force or pressure will win the hearts and minds in a country where the star-spangled banner has only smothered them.
The government of the United States has always been motivated by self-interest when building relations with Iran. The pursuit of oil profits and a strong military presence in Iran led to the U.S. seeking not just influence but control of the Iranian state, even if that meant taking less-than-democratic measures. Axis of Empire highlights the many attempts and eras of the United States’ grip of power in Iran, and the suffering that Iranians experienced because of it.
It’s also important to understand that the damage caused by the American empire’s grasp is used as a political tool of oppression within Iran. While the Iranian Revolution represented the powerful rejection of the regime of the ruthless and US-backed Shah, what arrived in its place was not the liberation Iranians had marched for. The Islamic Republic has often used domestic strife, such as the US Embassy hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq War, to consolidate power and crush political dissent. Brutality of this shade is often justified with a finger pointed at the recent past, at the United States’ destructive political and cultural influence that still lurks in the shadows of Tehran. Asgari questions these justifications of the Islamic Republic without cutting any slack for the United States and its allies in the region.
With international sanctions tightening and bunker bombs increasingly let loose on Iran, many nations are still captive to the delusion that Iranian citizens must suffer for the regime that oppresses them. Axis of Empire is an analysis of the complex relations of the country of Iran and the empire of America, and there are only complex solutions. Iran must maintain its sovereignty without silencing the voices and mandate of its people. America, as in many other corners of its empire, must realize that no amount of force or pressure will win the hearts and minds in a country where the star-spangled banner has only smothered them.
April 14, 2026
an insightful book especially for someone like me who has v basic knowledge of modern Iranian history!! the frequent and intense disjunction between what information about iran the US administration presented to the public vs what operatives expressed in more private settings was unsurprising, but certainly interesting to read more about…
one small gripe i have is the amount of typos that are in this book (i read the ebook version), which im guessing might have been because there was a rush to get it published asap given how the situation was unfolding in real time in the middle east? the typos were a bit distracting during an otherwise great read.
one small gripe i have is the amount of typos that are in this book (i read the ebook version), which im guessing might have been because there was a rush to get it published asap given how the situation was unfolding in real time in the middle east? the typos were a bit distracting during an otherwise great read.
March 20, 2026
as recent as the book is, the other reviews are right that the account is already a bit outdated in the light of the most recent events. however, i can't really fault the author, as he offers an excellent historical account of the country and its leadership (national and foreign), helpful especially if the reader (such as myself) seeks to understand the current direction of anti-islamist state demonstrations (the israeli and usa flags, the imagery of monarchy) by the iranian/ persian diaspora abroad.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews