The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran
Product ID: 338901805
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An immersive, gripping account of the rise and fall of Iran's glamorous Pahlavi dynasty, written with the cooperation of the late Shah's widow, Empress Farah, Iranian revolutionaries and US officials from the Carter administration.In this remarkably human portrait of one of the twentieth century's most complicated personalities, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Andrew Scott Cooper traces the Shah's life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He draws the turbulence of the post-war era during which the Shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the world's top five powers. Readers get the story of the Shah's political career alongside the story of his courtship and marriage to Farah Diba, who became a power in her own right, the beloved family they created, and an exclusive look at life inside the palace during the Iranian Revolution. Cooper's investigative account ultimately delivers the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty through the eyes of those who were there: leading Iranian revolutionaries; President Jimmy Carter and White House officials; US Ambassador William Sullivan and his staff in the American embassy in Tehran; American families caught up in the drama; even Empress Farah herself, and the rest of the Iranian Imperial family. Intimate and sweeping at once, The Fall of Heaven recreates in stunning detail the dramatic and final days of one of the world's most legendary ruling families, the unseating of which helped set the stage for the current state of the Middle East. Review: Zero pace ... no plot or character driven storytelling ... . - The author forgot to tell a story. Instead we get an overload of useless, unnecessary details page after page with no plot or character driven storytelling. Skip for me ... . Review: entretenida e interesante . - Excelente lectura muy recomendado.
| Best Sellers Rank | #635,626 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #495 in Revolution Histories #1,048 in Middle Eastern History (Books) #3,535 in Political Theory |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 753 Reviews |
N**S
Zero pace ... no plot or character driven storytelling ... .
The author forgot to tell a story. Instead we get an overload of useless, unnecessary details page after page with no plot or character driven storytelling. Skip for me ... .
M**O
entretenida e interesante .
Excelente lectura muy recomendado.
I**I
An extremely interesting book
A first class book which more than any other written recently about Iran, describes the turns and twists of the Islamic Revolution.
A**R
Absolute recommendation
Five Stars. Highly recommended for everyone interested in an exciting, well written and well researched book, that gives you a different and deeper view of the events, especially the last few years of Imperial Iran. But as the author says, that's just the beginning of serious research and an additional mosaic to understand what actually happened.
S**S
Excellent
Highly recommended: 1. Gives very comprehensive background on events of the decades leading to the events of the 70's, so the reader has the necessary context. 2. Goes into good detail on all relevant parties: the Shah, Khomeini, key government figures, religious figures, US and other foreign officials. 3. Writing style is gripping, especially in the second half of the book, when things spiral out of control. Just as you think things can't possibly get any worse, the next chapter shows you that oh yes they can. 4. Gives a good sense of the cultural and political mentalities governing the various players. 5. Gives good explanation of the various relevant streams of society: royalists, middle class, radical religious, etc. etc. etc. 6. Goes into great detail about the key events, so that the reader has a very clear understanding of just what was going on. This book was as gripping as any first-rate fiction thriller. The first half astounded me with revelations about the Shah, and how he was not close to the evil authoritarian many believe him to be -- if he were, he would have easily retained power. The second half, which dealt with the events of 1975 to 1979, was a spellbinding journey into the heartbreaking destruction of a noble effort on the part of the Shah to bring a backwards country into the cutting edge of political, social, technological and economic progress.
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