Mosaddeq was the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, a political moderate who was overthrown from power in a CIA-directed coup, after daring to nationalize the Iranian oil industry. Al Ahram Weekly tells the story, and points out how our modern policy towards Iran remains hobbled by those events, over five decades ago.

Incidentally, the single best book I’ve read about Iran is Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi.

There
were a lot of things about Iran’s pre-Revolutionary history that I
wasn’t aware of, misconceptions about why the Revolution happened, a
mistaken understanding of the Shah’s rule, the war with Iraq, etc. This
book did a lot to help me sort out this essential historical context,
and provided a great narrative to boot. Even though it’s fiction, and a
comic book, its almost mandatory reading for anyone desiring to
understand or comment on present-day foreign policy with Iran.

Related – my delicious bookmarks about Iran.