Recommended. A fascinating, compelling and thorough telling of the Iranian Hostage Crisis by Mark Bowden, who is one of my favourites. I didn't know much about the entire incident, and Bowden painted a gripping picture of events from the initial storming through the failed Delta Force operation to rescue the hostage, right to the end of their 444 days in captivity. A very good piece of history.

This is a well-written book on the 1979 hostages. We hear their story and also the Iranian side, at least in a larger sense. We get to know a few of the guards. It is interesting that a number of the students who stormed the embassy are now in high positions in power, and some have torn away from the regime and push for democratic reform. A must read!

Muy buen libro, a pesar de estar escrito por un norteamericano el libro no puede ocultar el desastre que fue para EE.UU. la toma de la embajada , 52 americanos estuvieron detenidos 444 días , la operación de rescate causo solo muertos y daños materiales en los rescatistas , Carter perdió la reelección y los americanos tuvieron que devolver todos los activos confiscados a Iran ,muy recomendable los capítulos sobre la operación de rescate " garra de águila"

Pretty comprehensive, but I'm trying to figure out what I learned from it. The book tends to dismiss the idea that the hostage release was delayed at the request of the Reagan administration. Rather, the Iranians had a symbolic hatred for Carter (ironically), because he supported the Shah pre-revolution and allowed him to come to the U.S. for medical treatment. Other than that, the hostage takers were disorganized and did not have clear objectives. The hostage takers continually expected non-elite Americans to side with their revolution as fellow proles. That's how naive they were. Any clergy involved from any side were not helpful and often harmful.

I was six years old when Iranian students raided the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Sixty-six hostages were taken in all. The planned three day protest turned into a 444 day nightmare. I cast my very first vote (albeit unofficial) for President Jimmy Carter that following year. I vaguely remember he wasn't the popular choice, but even then I had a tendency to want to fight for the underdog. I was completely oblivious to the events that surrounded his final year in office and what would be the last straw in what turned the majority of Americans against him at the polls.

The Iran Hostage Crisis became a pivotal moment in world history, especially for the United States. Americans would take to the streets in outrage while Iranians rallied in support of their fellow countrymen for taking on "the Great Satan". Iranians had good cause to be furious with the American government who had blatantly interfered with the leadership in Iran years before, knocking aside the Iranian people's favored leader for one the Americans felt served the U.S. interests better. The American favored shah was an oppressive and cruel leader. The tyrant was eventually overthrown and forced out of the country, leaving Iran in the middle of a revolution, different factions vying for power. When the shah was admitted into the U.S. for medical treatment, it was as if the Americans were flipping the Iranians the bird.

One particular group, a group of students calling themselves Muslim Students Following the Iman's Line wanted to make a statement and plotted to take over the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The sixty-six Americans hostages were all accused of being spies. In reality, only three of the hostages were CIA agents and none of them had viable contacts within Iran, and therefore, had not really been doing any spying at all. The turmoil in the country made that next to impossible. None of the evidence uncovered during the search of the embassy and the hostages living quarters supported the students assertions that the Americans wanted to assassinate the Ayatollah or take over their current government, and yet they persisted in their beliefs and acted accordingly.

Each of the hostages responded to captivity in their own ways; some were cooperative and tried to make friends with their captors, faith grew stronger for a couple, while others became rebellious and did what they could to torment their captors in their limited capacity. There were escape attempts and attempted suicides. It was a very difficult time for the hostages. Fourteen would be let go before the 444 days were up, leaving 52. Despite denials by the student captors of torture and that the hostages were treated well, that was not always the case. The hostages discovered that many of their captors were uneducated in terms of world events and were zealots to their cause.

The American government's decision to allow the shah into the U.S. had been the catalyst that sparked the takeover, but it fed flames that had already been simmering under the surface. The challenges the U.S. government faced in dealing with the situation seemed nearly insurmountable. The demands of Ayatollah Khomeini and the students were not ones the American government wanted to meet, and yet Carter and his administration were willing to make some concessions, even against their better judgment if it meant to return of the hostages. However, the leadership in Iran was unstable and the figureheads the U.S. government were trying to work with on a diplomatic level held no real power. Going in with force would most likely result in the death of the hostages, something the Carter administration wanted to avoid.

A rescue attempt was a long shot and a last resort. If anyone could do it, it would be the newly formed Delta Force, a unit of specially trained men, the best of the best. They trained for months, looking at all possibilities. Getting into and out of Iran, and most especially the land locked Tehran, would be one of the biggest hurdles. Those assigned to the mission knew that there would likely be causalities.

Mark Bowden set out to put the stories of both the captors and the hostages together for the book, Guests of the Ayatollah, as well as those in the military and government. Readers are also offered a glimpse at the reactions and thoughts of the families of the hostages. The author does an amazing job of piecing the crisis together and does so in a way that makes it accessible to the reader. Even knowing how the situation played out, I was still caught in the suspense of the moment as I read. Keeping the hostages straight was a bit of a challenge at first, but I eventually had a clear picture of who those featured in the book were.

I selected Guests of the Ayatollah as my pick for the 50 Books of Our Time Project not just because I had a copy sitting in my TBR collection, but also because of its relevance today. Today's Iran is under the control of some of the very people who were involved with the Iran Hostage Crisis thirty years ago. When the U.S. embassy in Tehran was overtaken by those Islamic students, it put events in motion that would solidify the fundamentalists' position in power. It gave Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers the ammunition they needed to step in and take the reins.

Not all the students were happy with the result. They went into the situation full of dreams of an Islamic utopia; strike down America and gain their freedom from Western oppression. They hadn't anticipated that their actions would unleash something much darker than they ever imagined. Not everyone feels that way, however. Some still believe in the current government of Iran and find comfort in the strict religious laws and controls.

The crisis in Tehran was not just limited to Iran. The cry of the people, the anger towards America, was felt by many in the Middle East. American foreign policy had not always been on the up and up and had offended many. This was the first time America faced off with militant Islam, especially in such a public setting. It was also one of the first times that television played a vital role shaping a major historical event.

Western influence is but a part of what the growing fundamentalist Islamic movement is fighting against, however. It is steeped in ideology and tradition, fighting against the inevitable change that comes with the passing of time and a world that is becoming more interconnected and dependent on each other.

For its part, the U.S. got a wakeup call from the experience.

Despite past transgressions by the American government, the taking of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the holding and treatment of the hostages was against the law and unethical. It was wrong, and it would come to have a negative impact on Iran in the long run. While the students and Iran celebrated a victory at the time and still try to portray it as such, more was lost than won by everyone during that crisis. The effects still reverberate today.

Earlier this year saw uprisings and protests in and outside of Iran which have not been seen in a long time. There are many people who are tired of the autocratic rule of the current ruler, Ali Khamenei, fed up with the oppression and direction their country has gone. Khamenei, just as his predecessors, uses his power to silence those who speak out against him. It is still too early to tell if the current outrage will be a catalyst for change or if, like previous attempts, it will be stamped out by those currently in power.

Guests of the Ayatollah deals with an event in history that is a defining moment for not only the United States, but also for Iran and other parts of the Middle East. Its impact is still being felt today. So, to answer My Friend Amy's question, yes, this is a book of our time.

The book is over 700 pages long and covers a lot of ground. Sometimes big books like this could do with a little extra editing, but I never felt that way with this one. I have kept my review of this book relatively short and spoiler free, leaving out many great discussion points. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy reading nonfiction and who want to understand and stay on top of current events.

Good introduction to modern Iranian politics and the role of information warfare. This book quickly illustrates the fickle nature of a society ruled by a clerical autocracy. It’s like having a Philosophy Professor as a Construction Manager over Major Urban development projects, ineptitude masked by a shroud of honorific titles creating cult like allegiance and following, but with lots of weapons. As the current unrest in Iran demonstrates many of the average Iranian citizens see through the facade. They find themselves trapped inside a country with extreme conservative elements that won’t hesitate to violently suppress or alter the narrative against them. Information Warfare is the new battlefield, he who controls the narrative controls the people. So the biggest threat to the Iranian Regime is “Free Speech” and exposing the false narratives.

A very good book. I think a lot of people like to attack Carter and, reading this, the frustration of the administration and the American people is palpable. But, ultimately, all the hostages got out alive.

I picked up the book remembering something about suggestions that the RNC was complicit in keeping the hostages there till after the election. I think this book somewhat talked me out of that suspicion but, it is important to remember, that terrorists don't do things rationally and keeping the hostages till after the election was very much, as Bowden described it, a means of snubbing Carter. It's also very heartening to see that Carter refused to discuss the deal-in-progress to help him in the election. And frustrating to read how Reagan seemed aloof and refused to be briefed on their status.

Oh, and this was very, very relevant:

Sheikh-ol-eslam also had one more session with Tom Ahern. The CIA station chief was led into a room where his old interrogator was seated alone behind a desk. Stretched across the desk was a long piece of cord.

Sheikh-ol-eslam lectured Ahern about how well he and the other hostages had been treated, and explained why it had been necessary to shame the United States and to reveal the insidious plotting that had been going on.

Ahern listened silently. He had heard it all before. He was eyeing the rope. The best he could figure, Sheikh-ol-eslam was going to use it on him again. Instead, Sheikh-ol-eslam started explaining that the beating Ahern had received were really not indicative of his own values or those of Islam.

“As a token of my sincerity in this, I invite you to use this rope to do to me what I did to you.”

Ahern looked at the rope and then at Sheikh-ol-eslam.

“We don’t do stuff like that,” he said.

Iranian Crime Against Humanity
Written by Mandi Scott Chestler on August 14th, 2009
Book Rating: 5/5
Written like a thriller, yet scrupulously researched and documented, this book is packed with first hand accounts from U.S. hostages, Iranian hostage-takers and jailers, and our brave military personnel involved in the aborted rescue attempt. Bowden relates how the Iranian student revolutionaries efforts to replace an oppressive shah with a lawless coup has ironically led to the hyper-dictatorship of a murderous "mullah-ocracy" for the last 30 years. This audio book is a must for any American who may not recall, or who may have never learned about, the heart-sickening hostage crisis our nation experienced when Iran illegally invaded the US embassy in Tehran and imprisoned our diplomats and staff for 444 days. Iran comitted a crime against these individuals, our country and the international community...something to keep in mind as Iran strives to become a nuclear power.

This is a fascinating, gripping non-fiction account of the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981. I bought this book after seeing "Argo." This book is definitely not an account of the true "Argo" story; in fact, the six workers who were the subject of that film are mentioned only very briefly in this book (as in, maybe ten sentences).

This book gives a brief background of the events leading up to the overthrow of the shah and the Iranian Revolution in the late 70s. Prior to reading this book, I only knew that there had been a revolution and that it had involved a retreat to a more fundamentalist Islamist state. That was the extent of my knowledge of the revolution. I knew nothing about the crisis itself. "Guests of the Ayatollah" starts with a concise history of shah's rule, the revolution, and America's involvement in putting the shah into power. There is definitely more in-depth reading available on the subject, but the details provided in the book gave me enough background to sufficiently understand the political climate at the time of the takeover.

The book weaves the story of the takeover with the ongoing political change in Iran, the stories of the hostages' experiences in captivity, the failed rescue attempt by a U.S. special forces outfit, and the Carter Administration's response to the crisis. The book jumps around among these different topics, but it's in chronological order, is easy to follow, and is very engrossing.

The only real issue I had was keeping track of the various hostages. The author doesn't provide accounts of all 52 hostages who spent the entire 444 days in captivity. But he follows enough people, who for the most part all seemed to have similar diplomatic roles, that I did get their jobs/titles/responsibilities confused. It turns out that this doesn't matter much - you become acquainted with the hostages throughout the book as they endure their captivity, and the author re-references some of their background details.

Some other reviews of this book have complained that the descriptions about the hostages' daily life got tired and tedious. I did not find that to be the case. I found that reading about how they developed communications systems when they couldn't talk, interacted with the guards, and got on each others' nerves was extremely interesting. Different people responded differently to the captivity, and the ways some of them tried to torment their guards were actually pretty amusing.

The inside account of the Carter Administration's approach to the crisis was also very interesting. I walked away from this book feeling as though Carter made decisions based on what would preserve lives, and not what was politically advantageous.

One final note: I recommend buying this book on an e-reader if possible. I ordered the paperback version, and it's pretty hefty. So I returned it and bought the e-book. The Kindle version was properly formatted and contained all the same pictures as the paperback version. (There aren't many photos in this book. If you are looking for pictures of all the hostages, you won't find that here.)

This book represents the art of storytelling with a vivid presentation of the Iran Hostage Crisis. The American diplomats captivity is primarily expressed in graphic detail which illuminates the authenticity of their 444 day imprisonment.

"Guests of the Ayatollah" also brings to life the response by President Carter, the Iranian students who seized the embassy, the daring rescue attempt by the U.S. Delta Force, and the role geopolitics would play with the Iraq-Iran war.

While this event occurred nearly 40 years ago, it is still relevant to our contemporary history as it shows how this crisis would dramatically reshape American-Middle Eastern relations for the next four decades.

Great read! Bowden is a wonderful storyteller and he makes a long book go by quickly. I would give this 5* but it focuses too much on individual hostage stories which takes away from understanding the political dynamic in my opinion.

Like all things Mark Bowden, this book is thorough in its details and well written. The book goes into great detail from start to finish of the US Embassy takeover in Iran in 1979 through to its 444-day conclusion in 1981. It shows how from the start everything on both sides was a mess on both sides and how this single event shaped the Iran of today that is still ruled by the clerics and how it stays a pariah on the international scene.

The students who took over the embassy only wanted a sit in of a day or so, but almost immediately lost control of events where the clerics in Qom seized their opportunity to take complete control of the country. The Americans tried in vain to negotiate, but the goal post kept being moved by the Iranians. The hostages lived in fear of being executed as spies by their "hosts", yet most were not mistreated. They just kind of lived in limbo not knowing when, if ever they were going home.

Covered in detail also is the attempted rescue of the hostages, code named Operation Eagle Claw that turned into a bit of a fiasco for various reason, but not because of lack of effort and bravery by the US servicemen involved. Yet almost no mention is made of the Canadian Caper made famous by the movie Argo a few years after the release of the book.

This is a very good, though heavy read that leaves no stone unturned to tell the true story of this event that is but a footnote in American history, yet the major event in shaping the modern Iran. Highly recommended.