King of Kings
By Scott Anderson ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10 "In some ways, this is a variation on the chicken-or-egg riddle, a debate point upon which reasonable people can disagree. On the one hand, the Iranian rebellion represented one of history's greatest c..."
By Scott Anderson
★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10
481 pages
What’s it about?
This work of nonfiction explores the factors that led to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. What lead to the downfall of the Shah of Iran (or the King of Kings)?
What did it make me think about?
How many times do we look back and wish things had been done differently?
Should I read it?
Although I read mostly fiction, I do enjoy a good nonfiction book every so often. So when a friend suggested this one, it seemed like a good time to know more about Iran. I was especially interested in reading more after finishing "The Lion Women of Theran' by . This book certainly gave me the history of the downfall of the Shah of Iran and the subsequent rise of an Islamic state under Ayatollah Khomeini. As with most of history, there are no easy answers.
A passage I marked
In some ways, this is a variation on the chicken-or-egg riddle, a debate point upon which reasonable people can disagree. On the one hand, the Iranian rebellion represented one of history's greatest counterrevolutions: there is simply no event in the contemporary era with which to compare it. On the other hand, the rumblings of a religious revivalism, were evident long before and across almost every faith, often in response to the same inequities – and iniquities- that modernity had visited upon Iran: the demonizing aspects of industrialization; the growing chasm between rich and poor, and urban and rural; the tearing apart of the traditional social structure in the name of progress. As in Iran, when this religious dissatisfaction fused with the political, and especially when political meant battling colonialism or imperialism, it could make for a profoundly potent force.
