Product 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #768558 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

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

Review
"Harris skillfully depicts the crisis against the background of Iran's tormented history." -- --Washington Post Book World

"One of the most comprehensive, most compelling narratives of the hostage crisis ever written." -- --The Nation

"THE CRISIS is a quite simply terrific to read. Harris is a master storyteller....This is an extraordinary feat." -- New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews

Misleading title and it suffers from serious problems
There is a natural fascination with what may be happening behind the scenes, and that certainly extends to what secret diplomacy may have been underway to resolve such an urgent crisis as that of the 1979 seizure of the hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Harris, formerly a contributing editor at the New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone, provides much interesting material about the various diplomatic initiatives. He is strongest in writing about the middle of the crisis, rather than the early days or the final resolution, which have been the subject of several detailed (and more authoritative) accounts[4] as well as much conspiratorial nonsense. Harris gives particularly interesting accounts of the role of Iranian foreign minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, who wrongly thought he knew what would persuade Iran's revolutionary leaders to let the hostages go; he ended up under arrest and was executed for his role in a plot to overthrow the government. Harris also highlights the role of private citizen Henry Kissinger as an intermediary with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

But The Crisis suffers from some serious problems. Harris provides no indication of his sources for particular statements. And in his afterward about his sources, he acknowledges that some quotes come "from multiple sources, which I have bound together inside a single set of quotation marks." He lists an impressive set of interviews, including many in Iran, as well as extensive use of primary source materials. But he also acknowledges "a special debt to the work of Gary Sick, William Shawcross, Pierre Salinger, and Amir Taheri"-three of whom have written books full of unsubstantiated innuendo that rely heavily on fabricated sources.

Furthermore, Harris's title misleads. He barely discusses the origins of militant Islam as a political movement. His account is not so much about the three main actors cited in the title-President Jimmy Carter, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the shah-as about the maneuverings of their top aides. The failure to deliver what the title implies is particularly important when one reflects upon how little result there was from the secret diplomacy on which Harris concentrates. In fact, the hostages were taken so that Iran's revolutionaries could isolate their erstwhile allies in the Westernized wing of the anti-shah movement and consolidate Iran's anti-American orientation; once that purpose had been accomplished, the hostages were released. The diplomatic maneuverings did more to prolong the crisis, by suggesting that the United States was too timid to react strongly, than to end it.

Excellent work that has implications for today's world
Though I was only seven at the time of the Iran Hostage Crisis, I can vividly remember how the Crisis touched everyone in America as I observed in my household. I remember the nightly new and papers menioning the three players highlighted in this work. With the exception of Carter, I knew very little about these three before picking up this book.

Harris provides the reader with a detailed account of each leaders rise to and/or fall from power. In a coup of thorough research, Harris attempts to lay out every twist and turn in the international negotiations to release the hostages. Though the subtitle mentions only Carter, the Shah, and Khomeni, Harris details the actions of numerous other players who interact with the three leaders and influence the course of events in Tehran.

The pace of the narrative is like that of an excellent thriller. Harris cuts back and forth between Washington, Paris, Tehran, and the carious locations of the Shah. He does an excellent job in capturing the emotions of the folks involved. The description of the disastrous rescue attempt is fantastic and exemplifies how small things can derail military operations. Harris also concentrates on how a world leader--be it the shah, president, or the Secretary General of the UN--has to be extremely careful in how he or she speaks.

One thing I really liked about this work is the final chapter in which Harris details what has happened to each person we met along the way. In so many works of non-fiction and history, we are introduced to folks who are dropped from the focus of the author.

Ultimately, this is an important work because it looks at the birth of the hatred of the United States espoused by militant Islams. It is fascinating and disturbing to think that this incident that brought down the presidency of Carter was initially to be a three day "statement" by a group of students in Tehran.

Good Recounting of History
If you enjoy historical writing that tells a story instead of hitting you over the head with numerous footnotes and citations, this is the book for you. Long before Al-Queda the US was forced to deal with Islamic Terrorism in the late-70's, and this book does a great job in explaning how it all happened.

The writer, David Harris does a great job in extrapolating information from existing sources and a number of interviews with people who were involved in the crisis both in and out of the Carter Administration. The strength of this book is his retelling of the human toll of the crisis and how a number of strong personalities were forced to work with one another.

For those of us who remember this time in history, it appeared as if the Carter Administration seemingly bumbled every possible opportunity in addressing the crisis. The book explains how it happened by examining what took place and who was involved both in Iran and the United States. Thanks to his work, we get a better idea of what many hitorical figures such as Jimmy Carter, Khomeni, Zbignew Breziniski and Cyrus Vance were like.

As a result, I came away from this book leaning something and enjoying the reading while I gained the information. Solid book that's worth your time.