Mary Elaine Hegland – 2014 Stanford University Press
Her trip to Iran, with her family in June of 1978, was to study the affects of the agriculture credit system in rural Iran, three villages located near Shiraz. Once settled in, however, her plans changed because of the start of the Iran revolution. Her research shifted to field research about the revolution. While most of the friends she made in the villages encouraged her to leave Iran, she remained true to her project. Eventually, through an Iranian friend, she obtained the papers she needed to remain in the country.
This book takes you on her journey, as an American in Iran’s heartland. It discusses the build up to the revolution. What makes this book unique is the way she has set it up. A list of the players and a description of their positions and chronological chart of the events are great points of reference for the reader. In the last chapter, the author discusses the state of affairs in Iran thirty four years after the revolution. As you close the cover, one can only hope that relationships between Iran and the west, especially the United States normalize. BUT you also hope that normalization does not mean back to the way they were pre revolution. As talks go forward with Iran we must hope that a new relationship, factors in respect, fairness and an understanding that the citizens of Iran are the BEST hope for peace in the Middle East.
Historical Novels
Gordon Doherty
Gordon Doherty is a Scottish writer, who describes himself as being addicted to reading and writing historical fiction, a task for which he is certainly highly accomplished.
Gordon Doherty’s most recent book “Legionary: land of the Sacred Fire” is of keen interest to readers of Sassanian Military history as it deals with the Romano-Byzantine’s Eastern frontier with the Sassanian Empire. The book is set in 377 CE, just as Emperor Valens has stripped the Sassanian-Persian frontier of its legions, sending every available man to Thracia in an effort to contain the rampaging Gothic hordes. This allows the Sassanian leadership in Ctesiphon to cast their gaze upon Rome’s trade-rich but (now) weakly-defended desert provinces. Shapur II (309-379 CE), Shahanshah (King of Kings) of the Sassanid Empire and his many client Shahan (kings) have long challenged Rome’s eastern holdings as theirs by ancestral right, and those lands have never been more vulnerable to a powerful Sassanian military strike. Thus, Valens must grasp at the slimmest of hopes that a Sassanian invasion can be staved off, not by the brute force of absent legions, but by the tenacity of a hardy few.
When Optio Numerius Vitellius Pavo and a select group of the XI Claudia are summoned to the Persian front, they leave Thracia behind, knowing little of what awaits them. They know only that they are to march into a land of strange gods. They whisper tales of the mighty Persian Savaran cavalry and pray to Mithras that they will see their homes and families again. All too soon it becomes clear to them that this is no ordinary mission – indeed, the very fate of the empire might rest upon their efforts. But for Pavo the burden is weightier still, for he knows that the east also holds something even more precious to him . . . the truth about his father.
Gordon’s Strategos trilogy is set around the build up to the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 AD and follows the dark and troubled life of a Byzantine general in a land riven with bloodshed and doubt. All of Gordon’s novels are available from good online stores in paperback and eBook format. Just click on any one of them on the slideshow (left) to find out more.
As long as the ideas keep coming to Gordon, there will be many more books to enjoy.
I Had Rather Died, Rape in the Civil War
Kim Murphey
Coachlight Press 2014
Rape has always been an event in every war that has taken place in the history of mankind. Yet, it has never been an important issue! Ms. Murphy defies the lack of interest in the rapes that occurred during this period and understands that women were mocked with only 30 soldiers punished for their actions.
Her effort, with this book, cannot go back and restore the dignity of the women so horrifically treated during the Civil War. BUT, it can help in placing the world on notice that RAPE should not be an accepted event, war or life and that stricter punishment for the offender should become universal.