Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Aslan (God: A Human History) delivers an intriguing account of the life and death of Howard Baskerville, an early 20th-century Presbyterian missionary to Persia who joined the country's revolt against its autocratic shah. Largely unknown in the U.S., Baskerville was the son and grandson of Presbyterian preachers and embraced a vision of global democracy under the tutelage of Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University. Arriving in Tabriz in 1907, Baskerville taught English at the American Memorial School, where many of his students were involved in the fight against the shah's attempts to invalidate the country's fledgling constitution. Over his superiors' objections--both the Presbyterian church and the U.S. government insisted on neutrality--Baskerville took up arms and died fighting with the revolutionaries in March 1909. Aslan, a fierce advocate for democracy in present-day Iran, forcefully rejects the idea that Baskerville was a naïve "white savior." "Democracy," he writes, "was either inalienable or it wasn't.... The U.S. government may have believed the latter. But not Howard Baskerville." Replete with fascinating asides into the revolutionary politics of the era and the complex dynamics between Russia, England, and Persia, this is a provocative portrait of an unsung American hero. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Zealot, religion scholar Aslan resurrects the life of the little-known Howard Baskerville, An American Martyr in Persia who traveled there in the early 1900s, befriending revolutionaries intent on securing democracy and eventually joining them in battle. The Wolfson Prize-winning Figes gives us the history book we need to read now: The Story of Russia, starting with the ancient Rus--Baltic Slavs or Vikings?--and parsing the mythologies that have shaped the country (60,000-copy first printing). Author of the New York Times best-selling "Resistance Quartet," Moorehead offers a portrait of Mussolini's Daughter, who was instrumental in imposing fascism in Italy. A Georgetown professor of history and politics tells the story of his own family, The Sassoons, the Jewish Baghdadi dynasty that built an empire grounded in trade in the 18th through 20th centuries. An award winner in the author's native Spain, Vallejo's Papyrus unearths the fascinating story of books and libraries in the ancient world.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The story of an "American Lafayette" who gave his life for Persian independence. Religion scholar Aslan provides a unique biography of Howard Baskerville (1885-1909), a Presbyterian missionary who died leading a charge in the Persian Constitutional Revolution. The author folds Baskerville's biography into the broader history of that revolution, which was an outcome of the authoritarianism and colonialism that marked Persia in the early 20th century. Aslan begins with a vivid account of Baskerville's youth and his transition from the Black Hills of South Dakota to Princeton, where he fell under the influence of the university's president, Woodrow Wilson, who sought to fashion the student body into "an army of righteous young men primed for national service." The author shows how Wilson's robust ideals about democracy deeply affected Baskerville, who left college for Persia to begin life as a missionary, settling into a Christian school in Tabriz. Aslan then dives into the story of the Constitutional Revolution, an episode marked by extraordinary foreign involvement, mainly by Russia and Britain. The author's retelling of the revolution is clear and dramatic. Readers may be surprised to find that Baskerville does not join the revolutionary forces until three-quarters of the way through the book and well into the timeline of the conflict. Nevertheless, he received a command position and, at perhaps the most crucial point of the fighting, led an early-morning raid in which he was mortally wounded. His bravery, but also the timing of his death, led to his becoming a hero to the people of Persia/Iran--until the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Aslan notes that after that point, references to Baskerville basically came to an end in Iran. Largely unknown in the country where he was born and officially forgotten in the country where he died, Baskerville's legacy emerges intact from the text. An intriguing read that breathes life into a pivotal moment of Persian/Iranian history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
