NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER • From the author of the landmark bestseller Lawrence in Arabia comes
a stunningly revelatory narrative history of the Iranian Revolution,
one of the most momentous events in modern times. This groundbreaking
work exposes the jaw-dropping stupidity of the American government and
traces the rise of religious nationalism, offering essential insights
into today's global unrest.
“A masterful and propulsive account
that chronicles a devastatingly transformative series of events whose
aftereffects reverberate to this day.” —The Kirkus Prize 2025 Jury
“An exceptional and important book. Scrupulous and enterprising reporting rarely combine with such superb storytelling.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A
masterful and gripping account. Anderson gives us a page-turning
history lesson that is more relevant than ever.” —Rajiv Chandrasekaran,
author Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a finalist for the National Book Award
On
New Year’s Eve, 1977, on a state visit to Iran, President Jimmy Carter
toasted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, King of Kings, Light of the Aryans,
Shadow of God on Earth, praising Iran as “an island of stability “ due
to “your leadership and the respect and admiration and love which your
people give to you.” Iran had the world’s fifth largest army and was
awash in billions of dollars in oil revenues. Construction cranes dotted
the skyline of its booming capital, Tehran. The regime’s feared secret
police force SAVAK had crushed communist opposition, and the Shah had
bought off the conservative Muslim clergy inside the country. He seemed
invulnerable, and invaluable to the United States as an ally in the Cold
War. Fourteen months later the Shah fled Iran into exile, forced from
the throne by a volcanic religious revolution led by a fiery cleric
named Ayatollah Khomeini. The ensuing hostage crisis forever damaged
America’s standing in the world. How could the United States, which had
one of the largest CIA stations in the world and thousands of military
personnel in Iran, have been so blind?
The spellbinding story
Scott Anderson weaves is one of a dictator blind to the disdain of his
subjects and a superpower blundering into disaster. Scott Anderson tells
this astonishing tale with the narrative brio, mordant wit, and keen
analysis that made his bestselling Lawrence of Arabia one
of the key texts in understanding the modern Middle East. The Iranian
Revolution, Anderson convincingly argues, was as world-shattering an
event as the French and Russian revolutions. In the Middle East, in
India, in Southeast Asia, in Europe, and now in the United States, the
hatred of economically-marginalized, religiously-fervent masses for a
wealthy secular elite has led to violence and upheaval – and Iran was
the template. King of Kings is a bravura work of history, and a warning.
