King of Kings: The Fall of the Shah, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Unmaking of the Modern Middle East

by Scott Anderson

King of Kings is by Scott Anderson, author of an excellent biography of T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence in Arabia. In King of Kings, Anderson tells the story of the Iranian Revolution by focusing on the actions of three key players: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah himself; Jimmy Carter, the American president; and Ruhollah Khomeini, a cleric who did not like the Shah’s secular reforms. The book feels quite close up and personal: Anderson’s own memories of the Shah’s visit to D.C. to meet Carter (he ended up getting hit by a demonstrator), and interviews with people who were there. Two interesting points the book dwells on: firstly, how different the Middle East looked with Iran as a close US ally, and secondly, the extent to which the Iranian Revolution was a big surprise to almost everyone, including Khomeini himself.