The US Propped Up the Shah’s Dictatorship to the Bitter End

The shah of Iran faced a secular opposition that wanted to restore constitutional government. Washington continued to back his dictatorship as it faced mass protests, paving the way for Ruhollah Khomeini to establish a theocratic system after its fall.

Review of King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson (Doubleday, 2025)

Scott Anderson’s new book, King of Kings, takes its title from the English translation of “Shahanshah,” the official Persian-language title of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s last king or shah, who was overthrown during a popular revolution in 1979.

Anderson, a US political journalist who has previously written both novels and nonfiction works, like the best-selling Lawrence in Arabia, approaches t