Overview

Why does the rift between the US and Iran persist? Iran and the United States have been at odds for forty years, locked in a cold war that has run the gamut. In Republics of Myth, Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, and John Tirman argue that a major contributing factor to this tenacious enmity is how each nation views itself. Their often-deadly confrontation derives from the very different national narratives that shape their politics, actions, and vision of their own destiny in the world. The dominant American narrative is the myth of the frontier--that the US can tame it, tame its inhabitants, and nurture democracy as well. Iran, conversely, can claim two dominant myths: the first, an unbroken (but not for lack of trying) lineage back to Cyrus the Great, and the second, the betrayal of Imam Hussein, the Prophet's grandson. From the coup d'�tat that overthrew Iran's legitimate premier Mohammad Mosaddeq to the hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq War, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, post-9/11 antagonisms, each episode illustrates anew the weight of historical narratives on present circumstances. Republics of Myth makes a major contribution to understanding this vital conflict.

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John Tirman is the executive director and principal research scientist at the MIT Center for International Studies. Malcolm Byrne is the deputy director and research director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Hussein Banai is an assistant professor of international studies at Indiana University. Chris Sorensen is the AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator of Brian Lies' Bats at the Beach, Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, and Margaret Peterson Haddix's Sent. Other narrations include Patricia Wood's Lottery and Jodi Picoult's Songs of the Humpback Whale, among many others.

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