From Publishers Weekly
The 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, exactly 25 years ago, awakened America to the depth of its unpopularity in the Middle East, and militant Islamism discovered its capacity to land a blow against a superpower. Journalist Harris (Shooting the Moon; etc.), formerly with the New York Times Magazine, rarely breaks from his suspenseful narrative for analysis, but the current relevance of the events is obvious. The initial antagonists are the shah, with his lavish lifestyle and authoritarian government, and the enigmatic Ayatollah Khomeini. Harris's main windows onto the Iranian revolution are its two most powerful moderates, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh and Abolhassan Bani Sadr, formerly Khomeini's brain trust during his exile in Paris. When a group of radical Muslim students stormed the American embassy and took 63 hostages, it helped consolidate the dominance of the Iranian revolution's Islamists. The psychology and decision-making process of the mullahs remain opaque in this account. Jimmy Carter's White House appears equally befuddled. Harris resourcefully reconstructs the administration's tortuous internal debates and hapless back-channel negotiations with Iran's revolutionary government. His dramatically paced tale culminates in gripping descriptions of the United States' failed rescue attempt and the endgame of the standoff, with its decisive effect on the election of 1980. 8 pages of photos not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Although the legacies of Vietnam have dominated the news recently, the true elephant in the foreign policy room these days may be the memory of the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-80. Although premised on its historical gravity, this book leaves the analysis for the political scientists and avoids naming the specific lessons of the 444-day crisis that marred the end of the Carter presidency. Instead, it aspires to documentary journalism, offering a detailed narrative of a truly fascinating cascade of events. Harris sews together familiar narratives with recently released documents and personal interviews; the result is engaging and fast paced, and its tone is authoritative. Particularly captivating are the character studies of high-profile participants on all sides, which help to crystallize a comprehensive narrative around key interpersonal antagonisms and miscommunications. Readers familiar with Harris' Vietnam-era activism (see Our War: What We Did in Vietnam and What It Did to Us) may be surprised at the relative lack of finger-pointing critique, but they likely won't be disappointed. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
"One of the most comprehensive, most compelling narratives of the hostage crisis ever written."
"Harris skillfully depicts the crisis against the background of Iran's tormented history."
New York Times Book Review
"THE CRISIS is a quite simply terrific to read. Harris is a master storyteller....This is an extraordinary feat."
Book Description
A thrilling, page-turning account, drawing on new never-before-reported information, of one of the most dramatic and important episodes in recent history: the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis. On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran and took hostage some five dozen Americans. Those Americans would remain hostage for over one year. This is the story of how, in a heretofore unimaginable sequence of events, a seemingly ragtag mob of students inspired by a barely known Muslim cleric named Khomeini eventually undid an American president. It is a story that spans a century, full of famous characters--like Carter, Khomeini, and the Shah--and those who worked in the shadows. Cross-cutting between Washington, Tehran, Paris, and training centers for the doomed Desert One rescue mission, THE CRISIS is a work of history that reads like a thriller. Full of never-before-reported details, and drawing for the first time on comprehensive interviews with the Iranians involved, as well as fresh discussions with the central American players, this book is David Harriss masterpiece--what hes been building up to for decades.
About the Author
David Harris, formerly a contributing editor at the New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone, has written eight previous books, including The League, Dreams Die Hard, The Last Stand, and Shooting the Moon. He lives in California.
The Crisis: The President, the Prophet, and the Shah-1979 and the Coming of Militant Islam FROM THE PUBLISHER
A thrilling, page-turning account, drawing on new never-before-reported information, of one of the most dramatic and important episodes in recent history: the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran and took hostage some five dozen Americans. Those Americans would remain hostage for over one year. This is the story of how, in a heretofore unimaginable sequence of events, a seemingly ragtag mob of students inspired by a barely known Muslim cleric named Khomeini eventually undid an American president.
It is a story that spans a century, full of famous characters--like Carter, Khomeini, and the Shah--and those who worked in the shadows. Cross-cutting between Washington, Tehran, Paris, and training centers for the doomed Desert One rescue mission, The Crisis is a work of history that reads like a thriller. Full of never-before-reported details, and drawing for the first time on comprehensive interviews with the Iranians involved, as well as fresh discussions with the central American players, this book is David Harriss masterpiece--what hes been building up to for decades.
FROM THE CRITICS
Kenneth M. Pollack - The New York Times
For those looking to remember and reassess that awful day of Nov. 4, 1979, David Harris, the author of Dreams Die Hard and other books, has provided a marvelous place to start. His new book, The Crisis, is quite simply terrific to read. Harris is a master storyteller, and The Crisis ranks with Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down and Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts as a work of engrossing nonfiction.
Publishers Weekly
The 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, exactly 25 years ago, awakened America to the depth of its unpopularity in the Middle East, and militant Islamism discovered its capacity to land a blow against a superpower. Journalist Harris (Shooting the Moon; etc.), formerly with the New York Times Magazine, rarely breaks from his suspenseful narrative for analysis, but the current relevance of the events is obvious. The initial antagonists are the shah, with his lavish lifestyle and authoritarian government, and the enigmatic Ayatollah Khomeini. Harris's main windows onto the Iranian revolution are its two most powerful moderates, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh and Abolhassan Bani Sadr, formerly Khomeini's brain trust during his exile in Paris. When a group of radical Muslim students stormed the American embassy and took 63 hostages, it helped consolidate the dominance of the Iranian revolution's Islamists. The psychology and decision-making process of the mullahs remain opaque in this account. Jimmy Carter's White House appears equally befuddled. Harris resourcefully reconstructs the administration's tortuous internal debates and hapless back-channel negotiations with Iran's revolutionary government. His dramatically paced tale culminates in gripping descriptions of the United States' failed rescue attempt and the endgame of the standoff, with its decisive effect on the election of 1980. 8 pages of photos not seen by PW. Agent, Kathy Robbins. (Oct. 27) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Twenty-five years later, there is renewed interest in the 444-day Iran hostage crisis, this country's first violent contact with a resurgent Islam. Farber (history, Temple Univ.) examines the context of the times, reviewing the history of American involvement with Iran and the growth of the anti-shah/anti-Western Muslim movement. The administration was desperately hoping that the revolutionaries would see their common interests and settle things, but the Khomeini regime was getting too much mileage from the crisis. President Carter seemed just as clueless as anyone else about what to do; only National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski gets favorable treatment from the author, who is not encouraged by our government's recent policy decisions in the Middle East. (Index not seen.) Investigative reporter Harris, while providing some necessary background, focuses on the day-to-day details of the crisis. Drawing on extensive interviews and published memoirs, he tells his story through the actions and thoughts of individuals more than official documents. The negotiations with Tehran were lengthy and complex, and here the frustration of American officials is palpable. What deserves even more research is the political situation in Iran at the time. The key irritant seems to have been the continued American devotion to the shah; if he could have been quickly dropped by Washington, perhaps this crisis could have been avoided. These two complementary books, one on the big picture and the other on the human element, are definitely suitable for patrons of both public and academic libraries.--Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The first shot in the current war between Wahhabis and Westerners, suggests veteran political journalist Harris (Shooting the Moon, 2001, etc.), was fired in Teheran a quarter of a century ago. Actually, writes Harris, there wasn't much shooting when a swarm of revolutionary guards and students seized the US embassy in 1979: the attack came as a surprise, and the attackers were so numerous that they were able to swarm over their American adversaries. (The Marine guards also showed restraint, Harris might have added.) The authors of the plot to capture the US embassy had smaller ambitions than came to be played out. Twenty-two-year-old engineering student Ibrahim Asgarzadeh planned instead to seize the compound for two or three days and, rather like the SDS at Columbia, use the experience to secure a forum for their grievances against the US: "The object of their action was not revenge but illumination." Hotter heads prevailed, and the rest is a history that Harris does a generally good job of capturing. He's sharply critical of the last Shah of Iran, who spent his country's money lavishly, yet also shows a few flickers of admiration for a man who seems to have known that he was playing an elaborate role; the shah's downfall, he suggests, came as much from the rise of Jimmy Carter, who had small patience for Iran's feared secret police and the shah's excuses that "it was only communists he hunted," as it did from homegrown restiveness and the rumblings of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The seizure of the embassy rings strange echoes today; Harris notes that in October 2001 the Bush administration quashed a lawsuit by the surviving hostages against the Islamic Republic of Iran, a part of thesupposed axis of evil, while even as the Iranian revolution ate its first generation of young, it continues to inspire anti-Western militants around the world. A slow read-sometimes those 444 days seem to pass in real time-but full of thought-provoking insights on one of the world's preeminent trouble zones.
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