Taken Hostage (eBook)

The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam

David Farber (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2009
224 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-2620-9 (ISBN)

Infos

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took sixty-six Americans captive. Thus began the Iran Hostage Crisis, an affair that captivated the American public for 444 days and marked America's first confrontation with the forces of radical Islam. Using hundreds of recently declassified government documents, historian David Farber takes the first in-depth look at the hostage crisis, examining its lessons for America's contemporary War on Terrorism. Unlike other histories of the subject, Farber's vivid and fast-paced narrative looks beyond the day-to-day circumstances of the crisis, using the events leading up to the ordeal as a means for understanding it. The book paints a portrait of the 1970s in the United States as an era of failed expectations in a nation plagued by uncertainty and anxiety. It reveals an American government ill prepared for the fall of the Shah of Iran and unable to reckon with the Ayatollah Khomeini and his militant Islamic followers. Farber's account is filled with fresh insights regarding the central players in the crisis: Khomeini emerges as an astute strategist, single-mindedly dedicated to creating an Islamic state. The Americans' student-captors appear as less-than-organized youths, having prepared for only a symbolic sit-in with just a three-day supply of food. ABC news chief Roone Arledge, newly installed and eager for ratings, is cited as a critical catalyst in elevating the hostages to cause celebre status. Throughout the book there emerge eerie parallels to the current terrorism crisis. Then as now, Farber demonstrates, politicians failed to grasp the depth of anger that Islamic fundamentalists harbored toward the United States, and Americans dismissed threats from terrorist groups as the crusades of ineffectual madmen. Taken Hostage is a timely and revealing history of America's first engagement with terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, one that provides a chilling reminder that the past is only prologue.

Autor

David Farber is Professor of History at Temple University, specializing in twentieth-century American history. His most recent book is Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.1.2009
• Reihe/Serie: Politics and Society in Modern America
• Reihe/Serie: Politics and Society in Modern America
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► 20. Jahrhundert bis 1945
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Zeitgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik
• Schlagworte: 1953 Iranian coup d'état • 1973 oil crisis • Alan Dawley • Anti-Americanism • Anti-Communism • Anwar Sadat • assassination • Capitalism • Central Intelligence Agency • Clash of civilizations • coup d'état • covert operation • cyrus the great • Cyrus Vance • David Rockefeller • Death to America • Dissident • economic stagnation • energy crisis • Foray • foreign policy • Foreign policy of the United States • Frank Church • Gary Sick • George Ball (diplomat) • George McGovern • george will • Gerald Ford • Great Satan • Hamilton Jordan • Harold Brown (Secretary of Defense) • Henry Kissinger • hostage • imperialism • Insurgency • International Relations • Iran Hostage Crisis • Iranian Revolution • Islamic Fundamentalism • Jimmy Carter • John F. Kennedy • Lyndon B. Johnson • middle class • militant • Militant (Trotskyist group) • Mohammad Mosaddegh • Mohammad Reza Pahlavi • Mullah • Muslim world • national security • News • newspaper • Newsweek • OPEC • Pahlavi Dynasty • political spectrum • Politician • Politics • Politics of Iran • Presidency of Ronald Reagan • Princeton University Press • Progressive Era • Protest • provisional government • pundit • Realpolitik • revolutionary movement • Reza Shah • rhetoric • Richard Nixon • rights • Rockefeller • Ronald Reagan • Ruhollah Khomeini • SAVAK • Secularism • Social Policy • Social Science • Soviet Union • Stagflation • Subversion • Tax • terrorism • The New York Times • third world • Unemployment • United States • United States Department of State • unrest • Voting • Walter Cronkite • Walter Mondale • war • Warren Christopher • Watergate scandal • Welfare State • william safire • World War II • Zbigniew Brzezinski • Zionism
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-2620-9 / 1400826209
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-2620-9 / 9781400826209