Guests of the Ayatollah - Mark Bowden - Audio Book

Guests of the Ayatollah - Mark Bowden : On November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students, inspired by revolutionary Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U. S. embassy in Tehran. They took fifty-two Americans hostage and kept nearly all of them captive 444 days.

The Iran hostage crisis was a watershed moment in American history. It was America's first showdown with Islamic fundamentalism, a confrontation at the forefront of American policy to this day. It was also a powerful dramatic story that captivated the American people, launched yellow-ribbon campaigns, made celebrities of the hostage's families, and crippled the reelection campaign of President Jimmy Carter.

In Guests of the Ayatollah, Bowden demonstrates an unparalleled skill in writing a narrative based on the day to day life of the hostages during those 444 days. He describes as well the hesitations of Jimmy Carter (US president at this time), all the failures which happened during rescue's attempts and all negotiations to try to free the hostages. A very interesting read.