- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (Jan 13 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1554682991
- ISBN-13: 978-1554682997
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 626 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #159,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The world watched with fear in November 1979, when Iranian students infiltrated and occupied the American embassy in Tehran. As the city exploded in a fury of revolution, few knew about the six American embassy staff who escaped into hiding. For three months, Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador to Iran--along with his wife and embassy staffers--concealed the Americans in their homes, terrified that Ayatollah Khomeini would find out and exact deadly consequences.
January 28, 2010, marks the 30th anniversary of an event that stunned the world, when Ken Taylor masterminded the exfiltration of the six diplomats from Tehran. Americans were held in thrall as Ted Koppel updated the nation on the fate of its hostages and the Canadians orchestrated an intrepid escape. Americans celebrated in the streets across the nation, raising banners that read "Thank you, Canada!"
In Our Man in Tehran, Robert Wright, author of the award-winning national bestseller Three Nights in Havana, tells the story behind a major historical flashpoint, a story of cloak-and-dagger intrigue, the stuff of John le Carré and Frederick Forsyth made real.
About the Author
ROBERT WRIGHT, Ph.D., is a professor of history at Trent University, specializing in foreign policy. He is the author of the national bestseller Three Nights in Havana, which won the 2008 Canadian Authors' Association's Lela Common Award for Canadian History and is currently being made into a feature documentary. He resides in Toronto with his wife and children.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Factual account of historic event,
By
This review is from: Our Man In Tehran (Hardcover)
The role played by Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and his embassy staff in Tehran is vividly recounted in "Our Man in Tehran". The potential of unfortunate things happening to them runs throughout the book. In equally clear terms the source of that danger, the contortions of the Iranian revolution, comes across. The two elements make the book informative and suspenseful from cover to cover.
5 of 16 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Another moral relativist historian writes,
By
This review is from: Our Man In Tehran (Hardcover)
After reading 22 pages into the book, this sentence made me stop and throw the book away: "I prefer Islamic Politics to either Islamic fundamentalism or militant Islam, which after 9/11 evoked Pres Bush's own militant Manicheanism....". Clearly the Canadian author has no freaking idea about the real nature of the subject he has written. There's no such thing as Islamic Politics. Maybe political Islam, but that word is just a misleading fabrication by some ignorant anti-American history prof Michael Hunt whose bias is known around the world. So yeah, I dont think this book is worthy of my time or money. Will return it to bookstore tomorrow. Not mentioning the fact that by exposing our ex-diplomat's cover in Iran as a stooge of CIA, he has put all current and future Canadian diplomatic corps around the world at risk. What a shame!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Revelatory Historical Page Turner,
By C. E. Stevens - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Our Man In Tehran (Hardcover)
Very lucidly written history of Ken Taylor's brief time as Canadian Ambassador to Iran at the time of the revolution - a real page turner. Reveals for the first time that Ambassador Taylor did more than just shelter the six Americans who were outside of the US embassy when it was taken over. At Jimmy Carter's behest, through the Canadian government and at great personal risk, he and his colleagues provided crucial intelligence information to the CIA for the later attempt to rescue all of the hostages. In vivid detail, the book also reveals the many missteps of the Carter Administration, some inadverant, some naive. The descriptions of the chaos of that period in the Iranian revolution gives an interesting perspective to the current political unrest in Iran.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Story of Lives Saved and a Region Destined for 30 Years of War,
By Eitic - Published on Amazon.com
Robert Wright's book "Our Man in Tehran" is a well told story that most Americans will benefit from learning and knowing. Mr. Wright draws on historical sources and many personal memoirs to add detail and perspective to a fascinating story. The book goes far beyond telling the heroic service of the Canadian Embassy staff in Tehran and Ambassador Taylor in particular. The story also encompasses the diverse forces that contributed to the Shah's downfall and the revolution in Iran that destroyed the hopes and lives of so many people. The confused and often inept response from the Carter Administration is painful to read. The scope of the historical significance of the events and the implications on the region of the lame U.S. response was certainly lost on the key U.S. policy makers. In many ways the wars that first engulfed Iraq and Iran and then spread to Afghanistan and Kuwait with the resulting loss of U.S. lives and treasure can be traced back to the fateful events in Iran as recounted by Mr. Wright. It is a book that is enjoyable to read and puts today's headlines about Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and the Arab Spring in the proper perspective of the continuing consequences of the Iranian Revolution. As an American reader, who appreciates the importance of our friends to the north, the book validates the enduring friendship of Canada and the United States. It is indeed good for citizens of both countries to be regularly reminded of the benefits of that invaluable friendship.
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