The Great Satan vs. the Mad Mullahs: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other By William O. Beeman

For than twenty five years the United States and Iran have been diplomatically estranged each characterizing the other not only as a political adversary but also as devious threatening and essentially evil According to William O Beeman s provocative book The Great Satan vs the Mad Mullahs such demonization is a self fulfilling prophecy as both countries have embraced exactly the policies and rhetoric that would particularly threaten or insult the other Drawing on his experience as a linguistic anthropologist Beeman parses how political leaders have used historical references religious associations and the mythology of evil to inflame their own citizens against the foreign country and proposes a way out of this dangerous debacle William Beeman s analysis of dissonant perceptions of Iran and the USA is compelling and important I am particularly grateful for this work James Peacock University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Beeman is interested in informing the reader than in impressing his peers The other strength of the book lies in the author s knowledge of Iranian history and culture It challenges the reader and forces him to question stereotypes about Iran and Washington s perspective on the country Abbas William Samii Middle East Journal The Great Satan vs the Mad Mullahs How the United States and Iran Demonize Each OtherHIGHLY academic and analytical I would recommend this book with a strong disclaimer that it gets excruciatingly boring at points However it is the best work I ve read on the U. S Iran relationship so if you re interested in being educated on that issue read this book English Beeman addresses complicated issues in terms that a normal person with a slight interest in international affairs can understand As with any nonfiction expository book Beeman s insights and theories should be taken with a grain of salt but overall he does a great job of reasoning through the sate of US Iranian relations up to 2005 Even though it looks like just another questionably objective book by a Westerner about the Middle East Beeman does a decent job of trying to truly understand another culture without the trappings of orientalism His conclusion is a bit idealistic and cringe worthy and also makes you question whether he has ever truly studied history and international politics or even just observed human nature but in the context of 2005 it would have been a common left leaning thought in academia and politics In fact to read this you must take into consideration the context of 2005 United States culture and government Overall a decent read for anyone in the US or with a US interest wanting to understand what has actually been happening in Iran Middle East in relation to the US and WHY it has been happening English Very detailed book on ups and downs on US Iran relations in depth discussion on Iran political system cultural norms and its impact on international politics good book to read English Beeman uses his anthropologist s cultural insight into Iran and analysis of the U. S s political way of thinking to explain how the rhetoric between the US and Iran honestly has less to do with each other than it does with their respective populations and domestic politics Considering how much we hear about Iran as some potential trigger happy nuclear power this book is useful for anyone seeking to look past our politician s posturing on national security and the war on terror As an academic Beeman inevitably uses some jargon and dense language but not enough to confuse the lay reader also the book is well organized enough that it s easy to follow along with Beeman s arguments English An in depth analysis of political relations between the two countries from a sociological perspective complete with historical context This book was an interesting albeit show read which provides a new lens through which to view other reading about Iranian life and culture English