tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post5275414068616158200..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: MOVIE TIMERobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-39538809864489131832012-10-26T21:31:26.150-04:002012-10-26T21:31:26.150-04:00Robert: Sorry for the delay responding. I was of...Robert: Sorry for the delay responding. I was off the grid for a while. I'm reading the Mossadegh book now. I'm a slow reader, a note taker, a lover of diversions and degressions.<br /><br />de Bellaigue writes well, His wife is Iranian; he lives (or did at one time) in Tehran and knows the place and the people. He is a convert to Iranian Shite Islam (not of the fundamentalist type, Inshallah). His view of Mossadegh is evident from the title; he thinks him a patriot. Here's an excerpt from the preface. <br /><br />"He started life conventionally enough, a product of the Persian upper class, in the last decades of the nineteenth century. In the 1920s and 1930s he achieved fame with a struggle against royal despotism which almost cost him his life. Mossadegh became notorious around the world in 1951, when he dared to nationalise Britain’s biggest overseas asset, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. He went on to lead the most enlightened government his country has ever known. The British wanted revenge and they enlisted the help of the United States on the grounds that Mossadegh was a communist stooge. On August 19, 1953, he was overthrown by a conspiracy hatched by the American and British secret services in favour of the Shah. He was banished to his estate and became a non-person under the Shah’s new dictatorship. The father of the nation had been cast aside, but he was impossible to forget." <br /><br />I'm looking forward to getting to 1953. I had thought that he was killed in the coup, but he died an old man. (alas, revolutionaries should die young: Castro in his dotage dressed in a ridiculous, robbin's egg blue athletic sweatsuit is deadly to the dreams of the young) When I get to the nasty US/British business, I'll report in.C Rossihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01296866350625800103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-79770942964527611482012-10-18T16:09:54.374-04:002012-10-18T16:09:54.374-04:00When I get time, I should read it.
When I get time, I should read it.<br />Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-57754127755893614972012-10-18T15:11:49.233-04:002012-10-18T15:11:49.233-04:00I did read Stephen Kinzer's All The Shah's...I did read Stephen Kinzer's All The Shah's Men, and it was bar none, one of the best works of history I've ever read. The entire book reads like a novel, but none of it is fictional.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-31853876241885646442012-10-18T12:29:32.194-04:002012-10-18T12:29:32.194-04:00Thank you. Have you read it? Can you say anythin...Thank you. Have you read it? Can you say anything about it?<br /><br />Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-8877408070433776972012-10-18T10:13:32.917-04:002012-10-18T10:13:32.917-04:00Robert: There is a very interesting new book by C...Robert: There is a very interesting new book by Christopher de Bellaigue on Mossadegh called "Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Tragic Anglo-American Coup." Here's the Amazon link:<br />http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Persia-Muhammad-Mossadegh-Anglo-American/dp/0061844705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350569348&sr=8-1&keywords=Patriot+of+PersiaC Rossihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01296866350625800103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-76246426238796567962012-10-18T10:11:22.623-04:002012-10-18T10:11:22.623-04:00Great minds think alike. :)
Great minds think alike. :)<br />Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-48164642820364781732012-10-18T09:18:42.717-04:002012-10-18T09:18:42.717-04:00Ironically Chomsky just put out an article on the ...Ironically Chomsky just put out an article on the Cuban missile crisis:<br />http://chomsky.info/articles/20121015.htmChrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.com