John Ghazvinian is an American journalist and historian. He was raised in London and Los Angeles, born in Iran and currently lives in Philadelphia. He is known for his writing on African oil politics as the author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, an expose of the petroleum industry in Africa. Ghazvinian is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Untapped has received widespread praise, particularly among progressives. Andrew Leonard at salon.com wrote of the book that it "should be must reading for anyone who still believes that unregulated markets are the best way to cure all the ills of the poor nations of the world." The Boston Globe called Untapped a "riveting account and superb analysis of what African oil means to a fuel-hungry world and to the African nations involved." The New York Times called the book "perceptive" and said that it "drills home the point...that a thoughtful strategy to lift the neglected bottom billion must compete against the global oil giants going about their business." Ghazvinian also writes for The Nation, Newsweek, GQ and The Virginia Quarterly Review. 

January 1st, 1974 in Iran (Age 50)