The Shah's Last Ride: The Fate of an Ally [Hardcover]

William Shawcross (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

By the author of Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia , this chronicles the forlorn journey into exile and death of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. It is also about the Pahlavi regime, its relations with the British and American governments and the popular uprising that toppled the Shah in 1979. In relating this classic tale of hubris, Shawcross is effective in delineating the Shah's blind arrogance as the petrodollars brought unimagined wealth to Iran. ("You in the United States," he remarked to a U.S. Treasury Secretary, "don't understand how a country should be run.") Instead of portraying him as a fool who got what he deserved, however, as a lesser writer might have done, Shawcross describes the Shah's 19-month exile as a pathetic search for refuge and for medical treatment by a homeless man who was unable to the very end to understand what had gone wrong. The author also reveals the complicated rivalry between the eight separate teams of doctors attempting to treat the medical problems that finally laid the Shah to rest on July 27, 1980. The Shah himself referred to this as "a medical soap opera." First serial to Vanity Fair; BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the man who ruled Iran in excess and fear, and lost his country to the Ayatollah Khomeini, has become a faint memory. Shawcross resurrects the Shah and his last months of life in exile while recalling the events and cast of international players that conspired to elevate him to his place of world prominence before turning him into a pariah and political dynamite for the United States and its allies. Although well written, the book contributes very little that is new. Libraries with established collections in this area will already have Fereydoun Hoveyda's Fall of the Shah and Amin Saikal's Rise and Fall of the Shah (both reviewed in LJ 4/15/80)both are good. If not, Shawcross's book will suffice. BOMC alternate. David P. Snider, Casa Grande P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 463 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671552317
• ISBN-13: 978-0671552312
• Product Dimensions: 14.7 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,922,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars THE VIEW FROM A DISTANCE, March 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Shah's Last Ride: The Fate of an Ally (Hardcover)

William Shawcross is a good reporter. But in this biography he faced one problem: he knew his subject only from a distance.
His account of the Shah's illness and his final agonies is excellent because it is based on extensive interviews with the doctors who treated the exiled king.
The rest of the book, however,suffers from insufficient research and analysis.
Many of the Iranians interviewed by Shawcross told him either what he wanted to hear or what they wanted him to hear. He had no means of checking their claims by cross-examining other witnesses and/or digging into Iranian archives.(Obviously closed to him).
Read this book as a medical account of the Shah's final days. ( You learn a great deal about the type of cancer that finally killed the Shah!) But for a deeper analysis of the Shah's politics, and some speculation about his eventual place in history, go to Marvin Zonis's " Majestic Failure."
And if you want a critical, and at the same time sympathetic, Iranian view go to Amir Taheri's " The Unknown Life of the Shah" which reads like a modern version of a Greek tragedy.
I also recommend the Shah's own " Answer to History" which, although self-serving and at times annoyingly dishonest,neverthelkess , provides much insight into the soul of that complex and misunderstood man.
AN IRANIAN READER

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but mainly about the Shah after his fall, November 13, 2011

By 

Dalton C. Rocha (Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shah's Last Ride: The Fate of an Ally (Hardcover)

I read this good book, here in Brazil.
But, please be care to not to have a deception, with this book. Never buy this book to really read, about the Iranian Islamic Revolution. Please, this book is more than 85% about the Shah's life after he left Iran and power on January, 1979. Yes, there's the chapters 2, 9, 10 and 11 that are mainly about Iran before the Shah's fall. Chapter 11, I thought as the best in all this book. The four best pages of his book are pages telling about the Shah's death in Egypt. He died with his family.
Seven great things of this book:
1- This book is really unbiased. It tells about what happened with the Shah, after he left the power and Iran.
2- This book really tells how small number were the real Shah's friends.
3- The Shah's defects, including his corruption and being a womanizer, before he left the power is really described.
4- Defects and crimes of Shah's family are described. His twin sister, former princess Ashraf is described how she made bad and good things. The Shah's last wife, the Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi (born Farah Diba) is described into good words, about that woman and last Shahbanu of the world. Shahbanu is the wife of Shah. The Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi seems to be the only good person circling the Shah. The rest of Shah's family was terrible.
5- This book tells how shunned became the Shah, after he fall from power.
6- Even being writen on 1988, this book isn't outdated about the Shah's end.
7- The epilogue of this book shows clearly that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution was doing in Iran, when this good book was published, in 1988.

Problems of this book are these:
1- This book isn't linear, except on its last half.
2- I wanted more information about the six months before the fall of the Shah.

5.0 out of 5 stars THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY IN A UNBIASED MANNER, May 28, 2002

By 

James J. Varela (Sarasota, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shah's Last Ride: The Fate of an Ally (Hardcover)

This book is superb, It tells the good the bad and the ugly in a fair unbaised manner which is rare for books on Iran. This book gives excellent insight onto one of history's most misunderstood figures, The Late Shah of Iran. Interviews with all the major players in the last days of The Peacock Throne. One disapointment Shawcross does not really delve very solidly into the Mossadegh era and the Shah & the CIA's role in helping the Iranian Air Force restore him to the throne. All in All, if you are a interested in the life and death of the Pahlavi Dynasty and want a fair and unbiased autopsy then this is your book