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The Rise and Rall of the Shah. By Saikal Amin. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. Pp. xiv + 279. $14.50.)

Of the recent spate of books purporting to help explain the complex events of the late 1970s in Iran, The Rise and Fall of the Shah by Amin Saikal is neither the best nor the worst. The book was an early entry in the publishers' rush to cash in on the extraordinary public interest in the subject. The fact that it is written by an academic and published by a university press in a first edition of 50,000 copies says much, not only about the relationship between media attention and the habits of the book-buying public, but also about the nature of the book itself. If one is looking for well-organized descriptive information, the lay person could do much worse in a choice of books on Iran. However, for those who have already been over well-worn ground, and for those seeking an analytical frame of reference explaining the rise and fall of the Shah, the book is disappointing.