Bowden is the consummate reporter. He can distill a huge complex story into a simple, understandable narrative. It lacks some verve and I feel like he glossed over the Argo storyline and Ross Perot, but this was truly one of a handful of the most important news events of the 20th century.

A brilliant work, describing in great detail the takeover of the US Embassy in Teheran in November, 1979. Meticulously researched, Bowden sheds generous amounts of light on the events of the 444 days of the hostages' captivity, and how the event served to shape and in some ways pave the way for events of our own day.

In 1979 when the hostage crisis began I had just turned 12. I recall how this story dominated the nightly news headlines. My father worked for the US Department of State so our family probably followed this story a little more closely than most.

(In fact our family has a very tangential connection to the story. My father was a Regional Security Officer. This means that he was in charge of security for all the agencies doing business under the auspices of the embassy. In late 1979 when the shah of Iran came to Panama, I was one of the first people to hear the news. I recall feeling thrilled that my father would trust me with such a big secret.

I also recall vacationing in London in 1982. We were having lunch in the US Embassy cafeteria and I recognized former hostage Ricahrd Queen. Queen had been released early because he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.)

This book was quite interesting to read because it gave us an insider's view of the hostage crisis. Bowden interviewed all the living hostages as part of his research for this book. And for those hostages that were deceased he relied on interviews conducted for other books.

For those of us watching at home, it wasn't immediately apparent some of the abuse being suffered by the hostages, but Bowden lays it all bare for the reader. In addition Bowden provides great detail about the living conditions and the various moves of the hostages, the amount of contact they had with each other and the sheer psychological strain they endured.

I learned a lot. For instance, I hadn't known that three of the hostages (L. Bruce Laingen, the mission chief - I attended boarding school with his son; Victor Tomseth, the political chief; and Mike Howland, the assistant security chief) spent almost their entire captivity in the Foreign Ministry, separated from the other hostages.

The nucleus of Iran's grievances against the United States date back to the CIA-sponsored coup in 1953, Operation Ajax, which deposed Mohammed Mossadeq from power and installed the shah with absolute authority. Gradually the shah's rule became more and more oppressive and behind it all Iranians saw the unseen hand of the United States.

When Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile, the shah fled the country and the Islamic Republic of Iran was born with Khomeini wielding ultimate authority.

The United States maintained relations with Iran and tried to cultivate contacts with the new regime. I think Bowden shows that the Iranians were so blinded by the past wrongs committed by the United States that they were unable to see that in the Carter administration they would have had a partner willing to try and make up for those past wrongs.

The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back was the US decision - disastrous in hindsight - to admit the shah into the US for medical treatment. The average Iranian learning of this decision assumed that the US was plotting a way to restore the shah to power.

Another huge mistake was, having made the decision to admit the shah to the US, the embassy should have been evacuated, at least temporarily.

The really unique (to me, at least) feature of the book is that Bowden also tells the story from the perspective of the hostage-takers. Here is where the book really excels because Bowden shows that, far from being a well-thought-out, well-orchestrated plot, it was a stunt staged by a group of Islamist students that really spiraled out of control. The students expected the occupation of the embassy to last three days and then they expected to go home. But there was such a groundswell of popular support that it actually toppled the provisional government (Iran was in the throes of the Islamist revolution sparked by the return of Ayatollah Khomeini) and turned the student group into a player in internal politics.

It also had the unintended consequence of leaving the US no-one with whom to negotiate with for the hostages' release. At several different moments the US thought it had reached agreements with representatives of the provisional government only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them by Khomeini.

In the course of his research into this book, Bowden traveled to Tehran and intereviewed as many of the hostage-takers as he could. Some of them have risen to prominence in the government while others have become disillusioned by the theocracy.

Not surprisingly those who attained prominence in the regime stand by their actions as a legitimate course of action. These figures seem to not understand that any benefit attainted by Iran is more than outweighed by the harm of 25+ years as an international pariah.

(An aside: it is apparently without irony that some of the hostage takers protested at US interference in Iran's internal affairs. What do these people think the Iranian government does in Iraq? Afghanistan? Syria? Lebanon?)

With regard to the failed rescue attempt, I have read several books about the special forces community (including Charlie Beckwith's 'Delta Force') and was quite familiar with Operation Eagle Claw. So I didn't learn anything new there. Oh, I did learn that Charlie Beckwith was an asshole.

All in all, though, this was quite a well-written and informative book about an important episode in our relations with the Middle East.

This is a solid book on this topic. Well researched and detailed, reads pretty well for nonfiction as well. Good audiobook too.

*the author is pretty biased toward Carter but he acknowledges other opinions, so I thought he did well

An amazing book that provides an unmatched look into the Iran hostage crisis from all angles. Bowden did unbelievably in-depth research, interviewing dozens of people including hostages, captors, government officials, and military personnel. He not only tells the story of what happened and when, but goes into the why things happened as well. It is difficult to weave together a narrative of events with incisive geopolitical analysis, but Bowden does this quite well. I would highly recommend this book.

3.5

The author does an admirable job weaving in the mindsets of the hostages, Islamic Republic revolutionaries, news media, and members of the Carter Administration over the course of the 444 days of crisis.

While I barely remember the mood of the nation, yellow ribbons around the city, and the gloomy nightly new cast, the book really brought to light with many intricate details that are rarely mentioned in the context of this crisis, such as, the birth of Delta Force and their tragic accident, Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and a Presidential election. Bowden does a great job bringing all of his in-depth interviews and research into one compelling book.

Excellent book! A very dark period we could all stand to learn from.

A comprehensive treatise on the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. Bowden wrote about the lives of the hostages during their 455 days from his interviews. He covered the attempts to negotiate their return and the failed rescue mission.

Listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author. I love how this author researches diverse opinions and presents them to the reader. It helped me better understand why the hostages were taken in the first place. I remember this event happening when I was in 6th - 7th grade, so my memory of it was limited.

I was a Senior at Spring Hill College and working for the CBS affiliate in Mobile, Alabama when this occurred. I was undergoing a transformation in my politics also at this time. Having met and listened to Ronald Reagan for over 3 hours in September of 1976, I fell in love with both the man and his ideas; I became a Reagan Democrat turned Republican, and never turned toward the left again. I voted for the former President in the 1976 Republican primary rather than Gerald Ford. I proudly cast my vote for Reagan again in 1980, mainly because of this hostage situation and the feckless handling of this situation by the Carter Administration. My schoolmates and station friends were constantly discussing the hostage situation among ourselves. Uncle Walter words were repeated ad nauseam as I recalled. I wasn't surprised than the hostages were freed as Reagan took his Presidential Oath of office. Leaders of nations understood that a new sheriff was in D.C. and were afraid as they should've been. We cheered in the studio as the News Bulletin aired.

When I first read this book a couple of years ago, I was horrified by actions of the hostage takers. It is still horrific to read, but this time I was also repulsed by their actions. I was very surprised by how ineffectual Carter was; there is never guarantees that military action will succeed or be doomed to fail. Everything must be on the table and everything must be tried to save American lives - i.e. Benghazi in 2012. Carter was more involved with the decision making than I believe he should of been, but Mark Bowden gives readers much more details of the Washington front than the network news departments did in 1979 - 1980. And I found that fascinating. Bpwden retells stories of bravery, endurance, and resistance from the survivors. There's even a traitor in their midst.

Though quite long, Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam reads like fiction mostly. Some parts do read like dry toilet papered textbooks, but these parts are few and far between in Bowden's prose.

A mammoth of a book, but what a wonderful resource on the Iran Hostage Crisis. There is a lot to digest in this book, and definitely lots of research was done. I was a young girl while this was happening and this book filled in lots of pieces I didn’t know or understand. I am glad I took the time to read this to further my knowledge.