{"product_id":"9780771026812","title":"King of Kings","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2025 Kirkus Prize • Finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for History • Finalist for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction • Finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize • A \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book of the Year • Named a Best Book of 2025 by \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGlobe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFrom the author of the acclaimed international bestseller \u003ci\u003eLawrence in Arabia\u003c\/i\u003e, a stunningly revelatory narrative history of one of the most momentous events in modern times and the dawn of the age of religious nationalism.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn November 16th, 1977, at a state dinner in the White House, President Jimmy Carter toasted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, King of Kings, Light of the Aryans, Shadow of God on Earth, praising his “enlightened leadership” and extolling Iran as “a stabilizing influence in that part of the world.”  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. How could the United States (and other Western allies), which had one of the largest CIA stations in the world and thousands of military personnel in Iran, have been so blind?\u003cbr\u003e    The spellbinding story Scott Anderson weaves is one of a dictator oblivious to the disdain of his subjects and a superpower blundering into disaster. The Shah emerges as a fascinating, Shakespearean character – a wannabe Richard III unaware of the depth of dissent to his rule, indecisive like Hamlet when action was called for, and at the end Lear-like as he raged against his fate. The Americans made terrible decisions at almost every juncture, from a secret pact designed by Kissinger and Nixon, to dismissing reports from the one diplomat who saw how hated the Shah was by the Iranian people (unlike almost all his colleagues, he spoke Farsi), to Jimmy Carter allowing the Shah to come to America for medical treatment, which set off the hostage crisis which forever damaged American influence in the world.\u003cbr\u003e    Scott Anderson tells this astonishing tale with the narrative brio, mordant wit, and keen analysis that made his bestselling \u003ci\u003eLawrence in Arabia\u003c\/i\u003e one of the key texts in understanding the modern Middle East.  Based on voluminous research and dozens of interviews, \u003ci\u003eKing of Kings\u003c\/i\u003e is driven by penetrating portraits of the people involved – the Iranian-American doctor who convinced American officials Khomeini was a moderate; the American teacher who learned of Khomeini’s influence long before the cleric was even mentioned in official reports; the Shah’s court minister who kept a detailed diary of all their interactions; the Shah’s wife Farah who still mourns her lost kingdom; the hypocritical and misguided Jimmy Carter; and the implacable Khomeini who outmaneuvered his foes at every turn.\u003cbr\u003e    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 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. \u003ci\u003eKing of Kings \u003c\/i\u003eis a bravura work of history, and a warning.","brand":"Scott Anderson","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":47206964855006,"sku":"9780771026812","price":45.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0425\/4567\/6440\/files\/BNCImageAPI_d8d00986-d239-41da-9cea-e15d2dd3a003.jpg?v=1754097291","url":"https:\/\/paragraphbooks.com\/products\/9780771026812","provider":"Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}