About us
Our book club is structured around reading and discussing one non-fiction book each month, typically on the second Sunday of the month but rescheduled as needed based on holidays or travel. The meetings are currently hybrid but in person attendance is encouraged when possible. The meetings are facilitated to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute. All members are encouraged to provide their opinions, and all opinions are valued and respected.
This book club does not solicit or accept payment related to book selection, and the organizer does not reach out to authors; all book nominations come from members only.
Click to see a list of books we have read and the group's rating. Every month we choose the book for two months ahead. Members prioritize their book choices in a Google Form and then we run a ranked choice algorithm on the resulting set of votes. Members can suggest books in their RSVP to a meeting, in the Google Form, or by messaging the organizer directly. It is at the organizer's discretion which books are included in any given vote.
Upcoming events
1
All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer
Scott's House & Zoom, College Ave & Woolsey St, Berkeley, CA, USOur book for Dec 13 is All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer
For those who are interested, here is the link to the detailed results from the voting.
In 1951, Iran’s parliament voted to nationalize the country’s oil industry, which had been controlled for half a century by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the forerunner of BP. Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a European-educated lawyer and nationalist, led the effort and became the face of a broader push for Iranian self-rule. Britain tried to reverse the decision through negotiation, an embargo on Iranian oil, and an international court case, and when those failed it asked the United States for help. President Truman declined, but the Eisenhower administration, with John Foster Dulles at the State Department and his brother Allen Dulles at the CIA, agreed. In August 1953, CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt Jr., a grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, organized a coup using bribed politicians, paid street crowds, and army officers loyal to the Shah. The first attempt failed and the Shah fled the country, but a second attempt a few days later removed Mossadegh and returned the Shah to power.
Stephen Kinzer, a longtime foreign correspondent for The New York Times, published the book in 2003, drawing on declassified records that include the CIA’s own internal history of the operation. He begins with the background: the Qajar dynasty, the early oil concession granted to British investor William Knox D’Arcy, and the rise of the Pahlavi family. He then follows the aftermath, as Mossadegh spent the rest of his life under house arrest and Mohammad Reza Shah ruled with growing repression for 25 years until the 1979 revolution brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power. Kinzer argues that the coup set a pattern for later American covert interventions, beginning in Guatemala the following year, and that its legacy fed lasting Iranian distrust of the United States and contributed to the rise of anti-Western militancy in the Middle East.
This event will be hybrid. I will host the meeting in person at my house in Berkeley which is near the intersection of College Ave and Woolsey St. I will email people the address the Saturday before the meeting.
Here are the Zoom details:
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88589978749?pwd=B3aRifcxwzL3kmUTrSJeaPlbozircV.1
Or dial: (US) +1-669-444-9171 Meeting ID:88589978749# Participant ID: none Passcode:690326#9 attendees
Past events
197
