Khomeini's Ghost: Iran Since 1979
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Product Description
Review
'More than just a standard biography, Con Coughlin's new book sets out to understand the impact and lasting effect of Khomeini's Islamic revolution. This is a fascinating, frightening and tragically trenchant book.'
--Catholic Herald
`If you want to be up to date with what's happening in the Middle East the man to go to is Con Coughlin...I don't know about you, but Khomeini and his legacy frightens me and Coughlin's book does nothing to allay one's fears.' --Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph
`The definitive account...the author charts in detail Khomeini's developing interest in terror groups and his considerable influence on the rest of the world.' --Huddersfield Daily Examiner
`A fascinating and sobering read.'
--Mail on Sunday
--Catholic Herald
`If you want to be up to date with what's happening in the Middle East the man to go to is Con Coughlin...I don't know about you, but Khomeini and his legacy frightens me and Coughlin's book does nothing to allay one's fears.' --Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph
`The definitive account...the author charts in detail Khomeini's developing interest in terror groups and his considerable influence on the rest of the world.' --Huddersfield Daily Examiner
`A fascinating and sobering read.'
--Mail on Sunday
Product Description
A compelling, authoritative account of Ayatollah Khomeini and his baleful legacy from the bestselling author of Saddam: His Secret Life - with a new chapter covering the Iranian election and its bloody aftermath
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A truly terrible work. Coughlin distorts basic facts, and writes in a highly incendiary way, as opposed to presenting basic facts and information in a calm, sober and scholarly fashion. As Azadeh Moaveni makes clear in her review for the New York Times: "Given the current attitudes in Washington about Iran, it seems Coughlin's book has arrived one administration too late." Coughlin is wildy out of step with the times and I hope book sales reflect people's weariness of fearmongering demagogues.
Coughlin repeats the Bush melodrama of Absolute Good vs. Absolute Evil, with little appreciation for the subtlety and nuance reality actually demands. I suggest you read Moaveni's review in the NYT entitled "Most Fundamentalist" for a more detailed picture and cataloguing of Coughlin's many rudimentary mistakes, omissions and outright lies.
I myself am writing a PhD on contemporary Iranian politics at one of the UK'S top universities so I do have an idea of what I'm talking about also. If you're interested in reading an insightful and illuminating primer on Iran read Ervand Abrahamian's A History of Modern Iran, Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton Studies on the Near East) or Michael Axworthy's Iran: Empire of the Mind: A History from Zoroaster to the Present Day.
Couglin makes spurious and sensationalist claims on the most tendentious and thin of evidence. Please examine the footnotes. Not a single Persian language source and in a self-referential and somewhat Orwellian fashion he refers to his own newspaper articles in order to vindicate his flagrantly baseless assertions.
Couglin is an incredibly suspect figure. In a report published by the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran the sources of 44 articles written by Coughlin about Iran between 29/10/2005 and 10/10/2006 were examined and the following conclusions were made:
* Sources were unnamed or untraceable, often senior Western intelligence officials or senior Foreign Office officials.
* Articles were published at sensitive and delicate times where there had been relatively positive diplomatic moves towards Iran.
* Articles contained exclusive revelations about Iran combined with eye-catchingly controversial headlines.
* The story upon which the headline was based does not usually exceed one line or at the most one paragraph. The rest of the article focused on other, often unrelated, information.
It also should not be forgotten that Coughlin propagated the claim that the Iraqi army could access weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. This was the same claim, later discredited, used in the so-called "dodgy dossier" produced by the British intelligence services. Be wary of anything this man writes!
Coughlin repeats the Bush melodrama of Absolute Good vs. Absolute Evil, with little appreciation for the subtlety and nuance reality actually demands. I suggest you read Moaveni's review in the NYT entitled "Most Fundamentalist" for a more detailed picture and cataloguing of Coughlin's many rudimentary mistakes, omissions and outright lies.
I myself am writing a PhD on contemporary Iranian politics at one of the UK'S top universities so I do have an idea of what I'm talking about also. If you're interested in reading an insightful and illuminating primer on Iran read Ervand Abrahamian's A History of Modern Iran, Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton Studies on the Near East) or Michael Axworthy's Iran: Empire of the Mind: A History from Zoroaster to the Present Day.
Couglin makes spurious and sensationalist claims on the most tendentious and thin of evidence. Please examine the footnotes. Not a single Persian language source and in a self-referential and somewhat Orwellian fashion he refers to his own newspaper articles in order to vindicate his flagrantly baseless assertions.
Couglin is an incredibly suspect figure. In a report published by the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran the sources of 44 articles written by Coughlin about Iran between 29/10/2005 and 10/10/2006 were examined and the following conclusions were made:
* Sources were unnamed or untraceable, often senior Western intelligence officials or senior Foreign Office officials.
* Articles were published at sensitive and delicate times where there had been relatively positive diplomatic moves towards Iran.
* Articles contained exclusive revelations about Iran combined with eye-catchingly controversial headlines.
* The story upon which the headline was based does not usually exceed one line or at the most one paragraph. The rest of the article focused on other, often unrelated, information.
It also should not be forgotten that Coughlin propagated the claim that the Iraqi army could access weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. This was the same claim, later discredited, used in the so-called "dodgy dossier" produced by the British intelligence services. Be wary of anything this man writes!
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In criticising this book, I concentrate on one simple, but highly revealing, glaring factual mistake. Coughlin assets (p309 hardback edition) that Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi, received the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature for her book `Iran Awakening'. Coughlin's text implies a degree of familiarity with Ebadi's book and includes it in his Select Bibliography. Ebadi was in fact awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, an event she describes in `Iran Awakening.'
The awarding of a Nobel Prize is a publicised, easily checked fact. Yet Coughlin gets it wrong. Such a brazen factual error implies; (i) Coughlin hasn't read his own bibliography, (ii) he doesn't unduly trouble himself with the factual accuracy of his text, (iii) the absence of any basic fact checking during the publisher's editorial process, (iv) the writer has clearly not followed post-revolutionary Iranian affairs as closely as he would have us believe. High-profile international recognition of Ebadi's work was a source of great pride and celebration for many ordinary Iranians. I would expect the publisher's proclaimed expert of world-renown to know such things.
There are other fundamental factual errors in this book, some of which are referred to in the earlier reviews. These, together with the error addressed in this review, leave the reader with a simple question; if Coughlin can't, or doesn't choose, to get a simple fact correct, how much trust should we place in the rest of his text?
The awarding of a Nobel Prize is a publicised, easily checked fact. Yet Coughlin gets it wrong. Such a brazen factual error implies; (i) Coughlin hasn't read his own bibliography, (ii) he doesn't unduly trouble himself with the factual accuracy of his text, (iii) the absence of any basic fact checking during the publisher's editorial process, (iv) the writer has clearly not followed post-revolutionary Iranian affairs as closely as he would have us believe. High-profile international recognition of Ebadi's work was a source of great pride and celebration for many ordinary Iranians. I would expect the publisher's proclaimed expert of world-renown to know such things.
There are other fundamental factual errors in this book, some of which are referred to in the earlier reviews. These, together with the error addressed in this review, leave the reader with a simple question; if Coughlin can't, or doesn't choose, to get a simple fact correct, how much trust should we place in the rest of his text?
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is probably among the most biased books about Iran's modern history (It actually starts from over 100 years back). The book keeps making massive claims that when one checks the references it keeps saying "unnamed/private source/interview"! A complete unreliable and biased book. I would have given it no stars if I had the option here...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Give this one a miss
This is an extremely interesting topic and deserves serious attention. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to get it here which is a shame. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Danny of Arabia
EXCELLENT BOOK
An EXCELLENT BOOK which is clear and accurate.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in what has happened in Iran over the past 20-30 years.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in what has happened in Iran over the past 20-30 years.
Published on 27 Mar 2010 by Ms. A. Hosseini
A good, journalistic account of a highly controversial figure
First, I am giving this book 5 stars because in part I want to refute and counterbalance the highly disparaging and at times badly written review shown here on Amazon giving this... Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2009 by Philip Hurst
Khomeini's Ghost: Iran since 1979
Khomeini's Ghost: Iran Since 1979
This is generally an easy-to-read account and brings to life the human side of someone who has seemed to be a very distant and austere... Read more
This is generally an easy-to-read account and brings to life the human side of someone who has seemed to be a very distant and austere... Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2009 by Mr. J. F. Farrell
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