Paging crazy4lsu (All the Shah's Men)

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Couple of questions... I can see how the US/British plot to overthrow Mosedeq (sp?) led to radicalizarion in Iran, but I thought it was a stretch for this event to explain all the radicalization of Islam in the ME. How do you explain that? Is there another book that you would recommend to make that link? Or any other book that you think I would like for that matter.

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I didn't intend for it to explain all of the radicalization. I apologize if I made that statement. It explains the political climate around Shia Islamism in particular. Why I suggest people to read it is one, it offers an easy entrance to ME politics, and secondly, it shows that nothing occurs in a vacuum, and for every political calculation, there is a political response.

To be clear, the overthrow of Mosaddegh doesn't explain the radicalization of the ME as a whole. It doesn't even explain completely Iran's radicalization, as in, there is the possibility of a similar revolution in Iran absent of any coup.

What the Iranian revolution did do was to awaken Islamic movements in other countries, which were fringe movements in the post-war era. The revolution, the seizure of the Ka'aba by the Ikhwan in 1979, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan started in earnest this period of radicalization, but the Islamic revival had been occurring from since the early part of the century.

If you want a more general history, The Modern Middle East by James L. Gelvin is a good start.

I'm trying to arrange a book list for myself and others which hopefully will be comprehensive enough for people curious about this topic.

Thanks. I'm going to follow this thr ad and check out ththe recommendations