The Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the United States

The Islamic Revolution in 1979 transformed Iranian society and reshaped the political landscape of the Middle East. Four decades later, Darioush Bayandor draws upon heretofore untapped archival evidence to reexamine the complex domestic and international dynamics that led to the Revolution. Beginning with the socioeconomic transformation of the 1960s, this book follows the Shah’s rule through the 1970s, tracing the emergence of opposition movements, the Shah’s blunders and miscalculations, the influence of the post-Vietnam zeitgeist and the role of the Carter administration. The Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the United States offers new revelations about how Iran was thrown into chaos and an ailing ruler lost control, with consequences that still reverberate today.

Darioush Bayandor is a Swiss-Iranian scholar and a former diplomat and United Nations official. He is the author of Iran and the CIA: The Fall of Mosaddeq Revisited (Palgrave, 2010).

“Meticulous and comprehensive, this newly released study of the 1979 revolution is a worthy addition to an already copious literature on Iran. … Bayandor provides a gripping chronicle of the forces that gave rise to a populist revolution and a theocratic post-revolutionary government.” (Brookings, brookings.edu, January, 2019)
‘”The Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the United States,’ offers a fresh perspective on the Shah of Iran’s rule and skillfully explains how the historical events that followed continue to shape Iran today. Working with previously untapp archival materials, Bayandor examines the sophisticated and often complex dynamics between domestic and international affairs in Iran.” (Kayhan Life, kayhanlife.com, February, 14 , 2019)

“Darioush Bayandor has produced a well-documented and highly readable account of the unforeseen and unexpected overthrow of the Iranian monarchy. Casting aside conspiracy theories and ideologies, he provides a balanced, unbiased account of the larger-than-life figures who shaped (and were shaped by) these momentous events.” (Ambassador John Limbert, Distinguished Professor of International Affairs at the U.S. Naval Academy and author of Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History)  

“Darioush Bayandor is known for writing books that shake up consensus by pointing to plain facts. With this excellent book he does it again, reconsidering the origins and course of the revolution of 1979 in Iran, on the basis of painstaking research. Everyone should read it.” (Michael Axworthy, Director of the Institute of Persian and Iranian Studies, University of Exeter, U.K.,  and author of A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind and Revolutionary Iran)