Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in Americas War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden - Troubling Times

From the best-selling author of Black Hawk Down comes a riveting, definitive chronicle of the Iran hostage crisis, America's first battle with militant Islam. On November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students, inspired by the revolutionary Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took fifty-two Americans hostage, and kept nearly all of them hostage for 444 days. In Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden tells this sweeping story through the eyes of the hostages, the soldiers in a new special forces unit sent to free them, their radical, naïve captors, and the diplomats working to end the crisis. Bowden takes us inside the hostages' cells and inside the Oval Office for meetings with President Carter and his exhausted team. We travel to international capitals where shadowy figures held clandestine negotiations, and to the deserts of Iran, where a courageous, desperate attempt to rescue the hostages exploded into tragic failure. Bowden dedicated five years to this research, including numerous trips to Iran and countless interviews with those involved on both sides. Guests of the Ayatollah is a detailed, brilliantly re-created, and suspenseful account of a crisis that gripped and ultimately changed the world.

Troubling Times
I remember the date very well, 4Nov79. Surprised to see 7Nov79 on the dust jacket. Reading the fine print, I received an "uncorrected draft copy" that was not for resale. No idea how that managed to find its way to my door.

In any event, looking beyond the misspelled words and repeated paragraphs in my copy, the author captured the daily torture/torment that the Americans hostages endured for 444 at the hands of "the student protestors". I was hoping for some insight into why this happened, what "the students" hoped to gain, why it lingered, and why it ended on the day of Ronald Regan's inauguration. The book satisfied my questions. Unsure how the author managed to compile all this information from the hostages in the minutest detail, but it was there. I would not have wanted to retell it if I had endured this ordeal.

For More 5 Star Reviews, Complete Product Review and The Lowest Prices Please Visit:
Buy Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in Americas War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden At The Lowest Price!