George Braswell, B.D.

George Braswell (B.D. ‘61) shares the exciting news that the Braswell family is prominently featured in Scott Anderson’s forthcoming book, King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation, to be published by Doubleday on August 5, 2025. Anderson, who is the author of the New York Times bestselling Lawrence in Arabia, unexpectedly reached out to Dr. Braswell several years ago while he was in his Mackie Hall office, sparking a series of conversations about Braswell’s time as a missionary and scholar in Iran. Anderson later read Braswell’s memoir To Ride a Magic Carpet and his Ph.D. dissertation. In a striking narrative decision, Anderson opens the book’s first chapter, “The Courtier,” not with the Shah or any political figure, but with the Braswell family, who served as Baptist missionaries in Iran and taught aspiring ayatollahs at the University of Tehran, with George being the only Christian faculty member in the Faculty of Islamic Theology. The Braswells are referenced throughout the book. “It is hard to believe,” writes George, “that such an acclaimed author would give so much attention to a Baptist missionary family.” He adds, “My preparation at the famed Yale Divinity School, as Anderson notes, well prepared me for that journey.”