Books by Mohammad Gholi Majd

Little is known about the Great Famine of 1869-1873, possibly the greatest calamity in the history of Iran. Using a variety of primary sources, including American missionary reports, this book describes and quantifies the devastation of the Great Famine of 1869-73 that killed 10-12 million Iranians, amounting to two-thirds of the population.

This book uses US diplomatic, military, and intelligence records, as well as primary British sources to examine the famine, epidemics, and chaos in Iran under Allied occupation during World War II.

"A completely fresh interpretation of the 1921-1941 Pahlavi period. . . . Majd has come upon a gold mine of information on this controversial period of Persian history. . . . The details and freshness of the figures are explosive. . . . Even more explosive are the land acquisitions materials and the information on the work of the Shah's secret police."--Hafez Farmayan, University of Texas at Austin Using recently declassified U.S. State Department archives, Mohammad Gholi Majd describes the rampant tyranny and destruction of Iran in the decades between the two world wars in a sensational yet thoroughly scholarly study that will rewrite the political and economic history of the country. The book begins with the British invasion of Iran in April 1918 and ends with the Anglo-Russian invasion in August 1941. Though historians are aware of the events that ensued, until now they have had no written evidence of the dreadful magnitude of the activities. Majd documents how the British brought to power an obscure and semi-illiterate military officer, Reza Khan, who was made shah in 1925. Thereafter, Majd shows, Iran was subjected to a level of brutality not seen for centuries. He also documents the financial plunder of the country during the period: records show that Reza Shah looted the bulk of Iran's oil revenues on the pretext of buying arms, amassing at least $100 million in his London bank accounts and huge sums in New York and Switzerland. Not even Iran's ancient crown jewels were spared. In contrast to incomplete and unreliable British records for the period, the recently declassified archives and bank records that Majd uses encompass a wide range of political, social, military, and economic matters. A work with immense implications, this book will correct the myth in Iranian history that the period 1921-41 was one of unqualified progress and reform.

The Iranian holocaust was one of the worst genocides of the 20th century, yet it remained concealed for nearly a century. Using primary sources such as US military records, British official sources, and Iranian newspaper reports, this book provides a comprehensive account of this tragedy.

Having described the rise of Reza Shah in a previous work, Majd completes the story by describing his downfall. Majd has searched the widely scattered U.S. diplomatic and military records extensively and supplemented the story with media reports. Over seventy years later, this interesting story is finally being told.

This book is the first detailed and documented history of Iran during 1919-1930 in the English language.

Explores the Anglo-American tensions over the control of oil in Iraq and Persia after WWI and the impact of American Vice-Consul Robert Imbrie's murder. Using evidence from US State Department documents, this work argues that Imbrie was the victim of a conspiracy aimed at consolidating British power in the region.

In this book, Mohammad Gholi Majd argues that Persia was the greatest victim of World War One and also the victim of possibly the worst genocide of the twentieth century. Using U.S. State Department records, as well as Persian and British sources, Majd describes and documents a veritable holocaust about which practically nothing has been written.