44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World

At a time when most Westerners fled the carnage in Iran, David Burnett was one of the few to stay and document the breathtakingly sudden fall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in December 1978, and the chaotic political maneuvering that would culminate in the triumph of the Ayatollahs and the birth of the Islamic Republic.

44 Days re-creates a coup that led to our long hostage crisis, President Jimmy Carter’s political demise, and an enmity still blazing after thirty years. Burnett’s vivid image...