From Palace to Prison: Inside the Iranian Revolution

On September 28, 1978, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, summoned the author, a prominent Iranian sociologist, to the palace in Teheran to ask for his analysis of the current political situation. ``Where does this rebellion and spreading agitation originate? Who instigated it? Who is sustaining this process? Who triggered this religious movement?'' Naraghi's daring answer, ``You yourself, Majesty,'' led to a series of conversations in which the author was given the opportunity to explain to the shah why he was considered an enemy of the people and what, if anything, could be done about it. In Naraghi's reconstruction, the eight meetings held during the final year of the shah's reign constitute a portrait of a national leader who was deaf to criticism and blind to reality. After the shah's flight into exile in February 1979, Naraghi was arrested and held for nearly three years in the notorious Evin Prison by followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini. His account of this experience makes up the second half of this compelling memoir. (Jan.)