As the West and the Islamic Republic of Iran tentatively reach out to one another, Laura Secor’s book, Children of Paradise: the Struggle for the Soul of Iran, is a timely reminder of the birth and development of the Iranian Revolution.  In this book Secor traces the philosophical roots of the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, and the subsequent struggle between hardliners, moderates and reformers within the country.  Secor’s book is a story of the ever-escalating brutality of the hardline leadership against moderate and reform elements, culminating in the fraudulent presidential election of 2009 and the crackdown on the so-called Green Movement.

This book is hard to read, because you continue to hope that moderate elements will prevail within the country when you know that they won’t.  The one thing that I took away from this book is that the Nation of Iran and its people are far greater than any of the unworthies that have led it over the last 60 years.