primarily on politics, Bellaigue also deals with questions of the arts and society as well. He managed to join a private study group dedicated to the thirteenth-century mystical poet Rumi, and to gain insights on why the poet still matters so much to Iranians. And he writes both of the art of ancient Persia and of the paradoxes of an exhibition of modern art in Tehran, which displayed the large collection assembled by the Empress Farah Diba before the revolution, still owned by the state but unlikely to be seen again in public under the Islamic regime. Bellaigue's acute insights into today's Iran and the international dealings with it are an essential guide to a country that will present the most pressing problemsfor US foreign policy in the near future. Table of Contents: 1. Introduction 2. The Struggle for Iran 3. Who Rules Iran? 4. The Loneliness of the Supreme Leader 5. Big Deal in Iran 6. Stalled in Iran 7. Bush, Iran, and the Bomb 8. New Man in Iran