First published 2025
Scott Anderson, author of the bestselling Lawrence in Arabia, examines one of modern history's most consequential upheavals. In November 1977, President Jimmy Carter praised Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi at a White House dinner, calling him an enlightened leader. Iran commanded the world's fifth largest military and enormous oil wealth. Construction cranes filled Tehran's skyline. The secret police had crushed opposition. Fourteen months later, the Shah fled into exile as Ayatollah Khomeini's religious revolution swept the country. Anderson reveals how the United States, despite maintaining one of its largest CIA stations and thousands of military personnel in Iran, failed to see the collapse coming. He portrays the Shah as a Shakespearean figure, indecisive like Hamlet and blind to his people's hatred. American officials made disastrous choices at every turn, from Nixon and Kissinger's secret agreements to Carter's decision to admit the Shah for medical treatment, triggering the hostage crisis. Through extensive research and interviews, Anderson argues the Iranian Revolution matched the French and Russian revolutions in global impact, creating a template for religious nationalism that continues reshaping the world today.
Genres: history, 20th-century, political-science, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: political-thriller
Setting: Iran, Tehran, United States
Period: 1977, 1978
481 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday