Book excerpt: This volume - the first of two - examines the history of the Left in Iran. Many of the documents have never been published in English before and will be of great interest to scholars and activists interested in the roots of the present crisis. These texts provide new insights into early Iranian Socialist and radical movements. They probe and consider: why the workers' and socialist movements did not make the most of their opportunities; the role of British imperialism; how Lenin - and later Theodore Rothstein - influenced the left in Iran; whether there were divergent interests between the Iranian working class and the new Russian state. This account does not seek to make such questions easy, nor to tender solace in trying times. It is also filled with admirable, too often tragic, struggles and personal odysseys.