This book is a comprehensive study of Iranian stamps as carriers of political propaganda, beginning with the establishment of a national postal system under Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848–96) and ending with the presidency of Muhammad Khatami (1997–2005). Its analysis of the evolution of the state's political iconography, as embodied in stamps, is embedded in a thorough discussion of the social and political history of Iran. It argues that stamps illustrate the modernization processes in state and society and throw light on the political self-understanding of rulers and their efforts to convey this self-understanding to the ruled and to the outside world, in order to acquire legitimacy.

For the Qajars, who ruled Iran at a time when most other non-Western states succumbed to European colonialism, stamps became a means to affirm their sovereignty within and without. After a false start under Amir Kabir in 1851, it was Iran's other reform-minded vizier of the 19th century, Amin al-Dawla, who took the initiative of creating a modern postal system, for which purpose he invited an Austrian civil servant, Gustav Riederer, to become head of Iran's postal administration in 1875. Riederer established fixed rates for letters and ensured that only letters carrying officially issued stamps be conveyed by the new postal service. He trained Iranians to take over and before he left in late 1877, he succeeded in having Persia admitted as a full member to the recently formed Universal Postal Union, which facilitated communication with the rest of the world. The new postal system thus contributed to state- and nation-building by providing a uniform service for all Iranian subjects and underscored Iran's sovereignty by giving it an independent presence in international communications. From now on stamps could be used to carry the state's message both to its own subjects and to the rest of the world.

Siebertz shows that the iconography of early stamps was influenced by that other marker of sovereignty: coins. Like these, stamps showed the emblem of the lion and the sun and/or the portrait of the reigning monarch. The similarity in function of coins and stamps, both embodying the state's monopoly on the issuance of means of payment, is shown by the fact that just as in previous ages rival claimants to the throne had struck coins, the new local governments that sprouted all over Iran in the aftermath of first the constitutional revolution and then World War I issued their own stamps.

The constitutional revolution changed official iconography, as the previous emphasis on the shah, reflecting the patrimonial nature of the political system, was replaced by imagery illustrating the conception of Iran as a cultural nation with ancient roots but modern institutions. This is best seen in what are arguably the most beautiful stamps ever issued in Iran, the coronation series of the last Qajar ruler, Ahmad Shah (r. 1909–25), which show engravings of Achemenid monuments. The national history depicted on these stamps in 1915 includes the Islamic period; but under Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925–41) stamps feature, in addition to the ruler's portrait, only pre-Islamic Persian motifs and depictions of the fruits of the state's modernization efforts, such as railways, factories, and new buildings. It was only in 1978 that, in an effort to appease the mounting opposition, an Iranian stamp showed a mosque again.

Under the long reign of Muhammad Reza Shah (r. 1941–79), the iconography of stamps evolved in tandem with the transformations of the regime. To the portrait of the shah, the depiction of ancient glories, and development projects were added visiting heads of state, the (growing number of) principles of the White Revolution, and celebrations of international days of this and of that. To signify a community of culture and values with the Western world, commemorative sets were issued not only for human rights and the struggle against racial discrimination, but also for such icons of Western civilization as Tehran's Hilton Hotel, the Lions Club, and the Girl Scout movement. At times these efforts acquired a hint of the surreal, for instance, when the 70th anniversary of Rotary International was celebrated with a stamp featuring an Achemenid motif and the struggle against illiteracy was publicized by showing an Apollo spaceship returning from the moon.

If the constitutional revolution effected a transition from patrimonialism to nationalism, the Islamic revolution begat the advent of populism, which was philatelically manifested by the frequent depiction of crowds. The visual message conveyed by stamps became decidedly unsubtle, often in a style reminiscent of Stalin-era socialist realism. ʿUlamaء replaced shahs, and mosques replaced Achemenid ruins. The previous era's attempt pictorially to convey a community of values with the West gave way to a crude Third Worldism that delighted in offending Western sensibilities, such as the commemoration of world's children day by means of the juxtaposition of a plump blond child eating out of a full bowl with a starving African child whose empty bowl is about to be hit by a rocket.

Another constant theme in the early years was the exaltation of death. The martyrdom of Imam Husayn, the Iran–Iraq War, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict—all furnished material for depicting blood, injury, and suffering. Perhaps unique in the annals of philately, murderers were repeatedly honored: the assassin of Nasir al-Din Shah, the “revolutionary execution agent” of Anwar Sadat, and the “Hero of Sinai” who killed seven Israeli tourists, all got their own stamps.

After the end of the Iran–Iraq War, the Islamic republic made a certain effort to rejoin the international community, and this new policy was reflected in stamps as well: they became less gory and offensive. Birds, butterflies, and flowers came to dominate definitives and development projects such as railways and dams reappeared on commemoratives. The number of the latter skyrocketed, and it would almost seem as if the postal administration ran out of things to commemorate, to wit a stamp celebrating the second anniversary of the unification of the two Yemens.

The above aperçu gives only an inadequate impression of the richness of the book here reviewed, which, in addition to its stated subject, also provides a concise cultural history of Iran, a history of Iran's postal administration, and insights into the state's decision-making process.

One aspect of Iranian stamps that Siebertz has overlooked is the verbal, as opposed to visual, message on them. In the late Qajar period, the Persian rendition of the country's name gradually changed from pust-i mamalik-i mahrusa-i Iran (post of the guarded realms of Iran) to pust-i dawlat-i alliya-i Iran (post of the exalted state of Iran), which further illustrates the transition from a patrimonial to (the aspiration for) a legal–rational state. Under Reza Shah, this became pust-i Iran, perhaps reflecting the abolition of titles in 1925 and the rationalization of official nomenclature that ensued. Likewise, the first permanent set issued after the revolution had both “Iran” and “République Islamique de l'Iran” written on the stamps, the first as an integral part of the design, the second as an obvious addition: what better illustration of the dual power structure than that obtained in 1979 can there be? This brings us to the foreign languages used on stamps, which reflects the declining fortunes of French and the rise of English as an international auxiliary language. Until the early years of the last shah's reign, inscriptions were in Persian and French, but by the 1970s some stamps had English inscriptions in addition to Persian. Ironically, it was only under the Islamic republic that the language of the Great Satan became the one by means of which the state communicated its message to the world, although at times, as Siebertz shows, Arabic has been used as well.

However, this omission weighs very lightly compared to the major contribution to scholarship this book constitutes. The author has made extensive use of Iranian archives and hard-to-find primary sources, and his command of the secondary literature in Persian, English, German, and French is exemplary. One hundred and sixty color reproductions illustrate the text. Furthermore, the book is well written and eschews jargon, a fondness for which is annoying in English but unbearable in German. Both cultural historians and philatelists will benefit from this book, which every university research library should own.

For a philatelist, Die Briefmarken Irans occasions a certain nostalgia for a time when epistolary exchanges still had the latent function of providing wholesome entertainment and educational exposure to distant lands. In the age of metered letters and electronic mail, stamps have become much less visible, and one wonders why the Islamic republic still bothers to issue so many of them, especially because their esthetic value is so low that they cannot possibly attract the attention of many collectors. Which brings me to a second afterthought: although Siebertz refrains from making any esthetic value judgments, for this reviewer the evolution of Iranian stamps provides yet another illustration for the decline in the state elite's esthetic standards that characterizes the transition from Qajar to Pahlavi rule and from the monarchy to the Islamic republic.