A rather decent, very detailed summary of Persia's long history, from ancient history until pretty much the book's release date.

It has a structure which I prefer in historiography books - not a dry list of dates and events, but rather a coherent, almost story-like prose, explaining events in discrete thematic chapters.

The final parts, dealing with recent history, seemed a bit too naive and hopeful to me, in light of recent terrors unleashed by the Iran government on its populace, and unrest stemming from that - but understandably so - the author clearly cares for the Persian region of the world very much.