Summary Of Taken Hostage By David Farber

For 444 days, the Iranian Hostage Crisis enthralled America. On November 4, 1979, 66 Americans were taken hostage in Tehran, Iran at the United States Embassy. These 66 Americans would remain hostages of radical Islamic terrorists until January of 1981. The Iranian Hostage Crisis would mark a significant point in the United States and the Middle East foreign relations. The crisis would also shed light on the history of United States nationalism since 1945.

In the novel Taken Hostage by David Farber, Farber takes a look into the perceptions of foreign relations with the United States and the Middle East and U.S. nationalism. In Farber’s novel, he generates an interpretation of the hostage crisis, drawing on the difficult history of the United

embassy in Tehran and seized control of the embassy. Farber provides both an international and domestic viewpoint on the crisis, which offers the reader more of an outlook on the situation. Farber’s international viewpoint provides the reader with the look into the origins of the situation and the policies the United States had put in place in Iran. These policies include the part in ousting Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh by the United States, the United States backing of the Shah and the inclination of policy makers to turn their backs to the problem of authoritarianism in Iran, which was causing suffering for the people in the country. These problems began when the United States took interest in the Middle East in the 1970’s because of its oil rich ground. Domestically, Farber discusses the crisis in terms of the associations with Jimmy Carter and the dominating negative view Americans had on the political life in the United States during the hostage crisis. During this time Jimmy Carter was viewed very negatively because Carter and his administration did not resolve the crisis soon enough and let the situation linger on. Ultimately, the Iranian Hostage Crisis is what fated Carter’s presidency in Farber’s