Baha'u'llah and the New Era_ An Introduction to the Baha'i Faith

"First a disclaimer. I do NOT share Baha'u'llah's vision for humanity. In particular I am not entirely sure that unity of the human race is necessarily desirable and I am pretty sure that uniformity in language and religion would be a bad thing. Instead I think differences need to be respected. Instead I read this book because when I was a child we had some family friends who were Baha'is from Iran (this was in the middle of Utah). This book provides first an overview of the history of the Baha'i faith. The main figures here are covered. It describes the religious persecution the groups faced in Persia and Turkey, and it provides a background for understanding the social context for the birth of that religion. The second part of the book is an overview of Baha'i teachings. It includes attitudes towards prayer, diet, health, marriage, divorce, and so forth. This is a very broad overview and doesn't go into too much detail. On the whole, I think this is a good book for anyone to read who wants to learn more about the Baha'i faith whether or not one agrees with it.