For much of the last 45 years, America and Iran have been at odds, either overtly or indirectly. In this rich, fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of the relations between these two nations back to the Persian Empire of the 18th century—the subject of great admiration by Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams—and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government. Drawing on years of archival research, Iranian-born, Oxford-educated John Ghazvinian looks back over two centuries and makes clear where, how, and when it all went wrong.