The Islamic Revolution in 1979 transformed Iranian society and reshaped the political landscape of the Middle East. Four decades later, Darioush Bayandor draws upon heretofore untapped archival evidence to reexamine the complex domestic and international dynamics that led to the Revolution. Beginning with the socioeconomic transformation of the 1960s, this book follows the Shahs rule through the 1970s, tracing the emergence of opposition movements, the Shahs blunders and miscalculations, the influence of the post-Vietnam zeitgeist and the role of the Carter administration.The Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the United States offers new revelations about how Iran was thrown into chaos and an ailing ruler lost control, with consequences that still reverberate today.

Darioush Bayandoris a Swiss-Iranian scholar and a former diplomat and United Nations official. He is the author ofIran and the CIA: The Fall of Mosaddeq Revisited (Palgrave, 2010).

I. The Pre-Revolution Setting.- 1. A Retrospective.- 2. Nezam Shahanshahi: The Shah's Imperial Order.- II. Onset of the Revolution.- 3. Downslide.- 4.  The Opposition.- 5. Changing Tack (19761977).- III. The Revolution.- 6. 1977: The Year of All Dangers.- 7. The Spark (Spring 1978).- 8. Actors, Strategies and Structures.-  9. The Abadan File.- 10. Appeasement and Recoil.- 11. October Countdown.- 12. November Countdown.- 13. The Military Spell: Prime Minister Gholamreza  Azhari.- 14. Carter's Quandry.- 15. The USSR and the Iranian Revolution.- 16. The Dawn of a New Era.- 17. The American Attempt at Dialogue with Ayatollah Khomeini.- 18. Swansongs.- 19. The Collapse.