Muhammad Reza Shah reigned from 1941 to 1979, when the Iranian Revolution ushered in the era of the Islamic Republic. In his book The Last Shah, Ray Takeyh chronicles the period of last shah’s reign with a view to understanding the causes of the revolution. What role did the United States play in the coup of 1953? How much responsibility does the shah bear for what happened in 1979? Did Jimmy Carter “lose” Iran? Is the Islamic Republic poised to suffer the same fate as the man it replaced?