A review by deltabelta
Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuściński

4.0

As its introduction admits, this book can be criticized for certain exaggerations of the Shah’s reign, or how poorly it has aged in light of the Islamic Republic. But that is the concession of Kapuściński having been a journalist, not a historian. He didn’t have the big picture, the benefit of hindsight, all our academics have learned from decades of study. He was down there with his nose in it. All he can tell us is what it was like down there in the streets during the revolution — what they were saying, how they were feeling, what they were thinking. It’s pivotal to understanding why the revolution happened in the first place. And some of the criticisms of the Shah — his disastrous handling of the profits of the 1973 oil shock, and his general crippling indecisiveness — were totally accurate as factors in the downfall of his reign.