The Fall of Heaven

The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran

De: Andrew Scott Cooper

Narrado por: Assaf Cohen

An immersive, gripping account of the rise and fall of Iran's glamorous Pahlavi dynasty, written with the cooperation of the late shah's widow, Empress Farah.

In this remarkably human portrait of one of the 20th century's most complicated personalities, author Andrew Scott Cooper traces Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He highlights the turbulence of the postwar era, during which the shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the world's top five powers. Listeners get the story of the shah's political career alongside the story of his courtship and marriage to Farah Diba, who became a power in her own right; the story of the beloved family they created; and an exclusive look at life inside the palace during the Iranian Revolution.

Cooper's investigative account ultimately delivers the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty through the eyes of those who were there: leading Iranian revolutionaries; President Jimmy Carter and White House officials; US Ambassador William Sullivan and his staff in the American embassy in Tehran; American families caught up in the drama; and even Empress Farah herself, along with the rest of the Iranian imperial family.

At once intimate and sweeping, The Fall of Heaven recreates in stunning detail the dramatic and final days of one of the world's most legendary ruling families, the unseating of which helped set the stage for the current state of the Middle East.

©2016 Andrew Scott Cooper (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Very interesting; recommended

A very interesting insight into what occurred in Iran after the coups d'etat in 53'. Although the focus is on the Pahlavi dynasty, the author does not shy away from pointing out shortcomings of the crown and ill-decision making premised on wishful thinking.

Recommended for those interested in a nation/people we know so little about, yet for whom the West holds a strong, negative opinion. For those that want to understand how yesterday's decisions (or lack therein) shaped the world today.

Great book

Eye opening book . Wish the people inside Iran could have access to it. History is the best teacher .

Informative & Important Perspectives

I’m impressed by the body of history in this book- all of the perspectives and all of the events reported by the author that help the reader (no matter how extensively informed prior to reading this one may be on the subject matter) understand what lead to the demise of the Iranian Monarchy. I feel lucky to have found this book.

Author Bias Dilutes Argument

This is a difficult read. If you empathize with the primary actors (the Shah and family), this is a frustrating book—that is the fault of the subject matter, not the author. There are no happy endings here. If you do not empathize with the characters, the book will drag because it is so focused on the dynasty-rather than a broader history of the times. My primary complaint against this book is the author’s overwhelming bias in favor of the Shah. The bias itself is less the problem than how it gets in the way of the author’s own thesis. The author believes that the Shah has been maligned by history, and abuses I’m under his reign either invented or exaggerated. In fact, the author does a good job of assembling facts and explanations in support of his argument and I came away agreeing that the Shah’s crimes were overstated and some of the criticism against him unfair. The problem is that the author goes too far and presents a portrait of the Shah as a man who could not hurt a fly and who could have stayed on the throne but refused to see a single Iranian with so much as a bloody nose (actual language from the book). The author does this by focusing on the Shahs statements of regret or pacific desires such that when the book hastily recites some facts a that could not be avoided in telling the story, it comes as a jarring cognitive dissonance. The book would have been more persuasive if the argument was not so overplayed. But the author relates it so much that it almost becomes laughable t the 35rh retelling.

The entire book can be summarized in one short dialogue that the author repeats at least 50 times with only minimal variation:
-Loyal General/Governor/Minister: Sire, the enemy is organizing. Thousands will die of you don’t order the army to put down the mob
-Shah: no don’t do that. Everything will be fine and I don’t want to see anyone hurt.
-Loyal General/Governor/Minister: But sire, many more will die if you don’t send in the army. The people WANT a firm ruler.
Shah: I don’t have it in me to give the order. Give them more freedom instead
-Loyal General/Governor/Minister: But sire, we will surely die if you don’t take firm measures and the Iranian people will be so much worse off if you don’t
-Shah/ I cannot. My souls is gentle come what may. I’m just a shy guy who only looks stern on TV.
*wash, rinse, repeat* (with a few diversions relating to the Shah’s marriages and carousing)

If you found the foregoing dialogue compelling then you are in for a treat with this book. If you think that dialogue would get tiresome after a dozen telling, this may not be the book for you. But if you skip it, you will miss out on the author wistfully reciting Saddam Hussein’s “prescient advice” that “better a few thousand die now then tens of thousands later” (exhorting the Shah to, you guessed it, send in the army).

Informative

A lot of interesting details / facts that I had not heard before. Overall a great book and worth a read. The content quality was as good as the Oil Kings also by the same author.

My only issue was the narration. The accents were poorly done including a male voice speaking for a female in what is assumed to be a Farsi accent. It was actually annoying. I would have avoided the constant switching back and forth.

Very interesting though probably quite biased.

I'm waiting for my Iranian co-worker to finish the book and discuss before assigning a degree of confidence regarding the overall assessment of the major characters. Other than that it was a very interesting account of a history most of us know of, but about which I don't know much.

Must read for Iranians

Shah has made one of the most remarkable chapters in Persian Kingdom history. This book serves as a profound source of lessons and evokes deep emotions as it delves into the challenges he faced to advance the country.

Get someone who speaks Farsi please...

Why not use someone who could speak Farsi to read this book. Very annoying that every name of persons and places is mispronounced.

Safest story of down fall of a country

I am an Iranian who was in her 20s when the odious revelation. By the most brutal human beings took place. It was loathsome tragedy that a country could go through. USA did not support the Shah who had every intention to bring his country to a modern civilization and the American Ambassador in Iran of that time typically made the grave mistake to back the brutal mullahs who were behind this hideous revolution. President Carter who lacked the wisdom as a state man created the situation in Middle East that now still we are witnessing. Iran is destroyed and the Iranians are stripped off the most basic freedom. Women are pushed out from the work force and are obliged to cover their hair or go to jail and be tortured and rapped by the guardians of the Islamic Republic. It’s is inconceivable how a country at this time and age could be forced to go back to the dark ages. I hold the USA government mostly responsible to what has happened in Iran of today. The Shah had a huge role in keeping the Middle East in peace and Hormons and just look what happened after him to that part of the world. This book a very detailed account of how it all happened during the last years of the rule of Pahlavi dynasty who were the best possible alternative for our country.

Long on quotes, short on narrative

This book was informative but cumbersome due to the minutiae of quotes, asides, and dialogue.