Mission for My Country

Mission for My Country is Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s first book, published in 1961 by McGraw-Hill in New York and Hutchinson in London; the Persian edition is a translation of this English original. Across fourteen chapters, the Shah lays out his worldview, his programs, and his own account of modern Iranian history.

The book opens with ancient Iran and the reforms of Reza Shah the Great, then turns to the author’s upbringing, education, and political thought. It recounts the 1953 oil-nationalization crisis from the monarchy’s side and sketches the early framework of what would become the White Revolution — land reform, women’s education and rights, and oil policy.

Written at roughly the midpoint of his reign, after he had consolidated power, it functions as both a political statement and a forward-looking manifesto, arguing for a Persian synthesis of Eastern and Western civilization and defining Iran’s place in the Cold-War world.

Its value lies in being a first-person, primary-source statement of the Shah’s governing philosophy mid-reign, frequently cited by historians of modern Iran. It is essential reading for understanding the Pahlavi dynasty’s own narrative of Iran’s modernization.