Empire and nationhood
Subtitle: the United States, Great Britain, and Iranian oil, 1950-1954
By: Mary Ann Heiss.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 328
Subjects: Petroleum industry and trade -- Government ownership -- Iran.; Anglo-Iranian Oil Dispute, 1951-1954.; Iran -- Politics and government -- 1941-1979.
Description: In 1951 prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh seized British oil holdings in Iran. The move set in motion four years of bitter political and strategic battles between a United Kingdom desperate for an economic rebound and an increasingly anti-Western regime in Teheran. The Eisenhower administration tried to broker a settlement, but Mossadegh was overthrown by an Anglo-American operation and replaced by the Shah. In this book, Mary Ann Heiss provides a detailed account of this turning point in cold war history. Drawing on a range of British and American documents, she provides an incisive political, economic, and cultural analysis of the first British and American effort to contain communism and radical Third World nationalism; the first American effort to bolster a crumbling British Empire; and the first effort by the CIA to overthrow a popular nationalist regime. This book is the full story not only of the shift from British to American dominance in the oil economies of the Middle East but also of the rise of nationalism in the context of the cold war.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-318) and index.