All the Shah's Men

An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

By: Stephen Kinzer

Narrated by: Michael Prichard, Jonathan Yen

Half a century ago, the United States overthrew the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, whose "crime" was nationalizing the country's oil industry.

In a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents, Kinzer reveals the involvement of Eisenhower, Churchill, Kermit Roosevelt, and the CIA in Operation Ajax, which restored Mohammad Reza Shah to power. Reza imposed a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection.

"It is not far-fetched", Kinzer asserts, "to draw a line from Operation Ajax through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York."

©2003 Stephen Kinzer (P)2003 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Breezy storytelling and diligent research.... This stands as a textbook lesson in how not to conduct foreign policy." (Publishers Weekly)

"With a keen journalistic eye, and with a novelist's pen....a very gripping read." (The New York Times)

"Kinzer's brilliant reconstruction of the Iranian coup is made even more fascinating by the fact that it is true. It is as gripping as a thriller, and also tells much about why the United States is involved today in places like Afgahanistan and Iraq." (Gore Vidal)

Concise, compelling, and enraging

One of the things I love about Kinzer's book is how he briefly but thoroughly covers the history of Persia/Iran from antiquity to WWI. It provides an excellent context to the immense folly that was Operation Ajax, especially when I think of how Iran could have today been a valuable ally to U.S. interests in the Middle East.

informative

I loved this book. it explains the origins of Iranian distrust of the United States and other western nations. I will continue to study on the life and times of Mossedegh.

Amazing book

Narration is great. Book itself is terrific. Very informative and engaging. Definitely a must read/hear for anyone interested in democracy building in the postwar era

FASCINATING HISTORY. One of Audible's BEST

I've listened to this twice. If you want to understand the US-Iran relationship, you should hear this amazing history. Mohammad Mosaddegh is completely unknown to most Americans. They need to know of him. Understanding Mosaddegh is essential to being educated to today's realities when it comes to the Middle East. You can't understand India without knowing something of Ghandi. In a similar vein, you can't begin to understand Iran without knowing about Mossaddegh. The world is still dealing with the seismic consequences of Great Britain's arrogance and greed toward Iran (combined with Soviet-inspired paranoia of Communism and Eisenhower's complicity in a CIA-led coup to support the Shah). Ironically, the West's failure to understand and support the common man and the power of democracy inspired a tragic revolutionary vacuum filled by radical extremists to this day.

Should be mandatory reading for all kids in school

We should know the dark history of our Nation every bit as thoroughly as we know about its success. What a terrible thing we did in the days of the Red Scare.