Summary Of Taken Hostage By David Farber

Ledontrae

Gooden

U.S. History

11/27/15

Taken Hostage David Farber tells the story of Iranian militants storming a United States Embassy in Tehran. Sixty six Americans were taken hostage, which became known as the Iran Hostage Crisis. This crisis was a concern that fascinated the American public for about four hundred and forty four days. It had stricken America's first confrontation with the forces of radical Islam. Farber takes the first detailed look at the hostage crisis, observing its teachings for America's current War on Terrorism. Farber states, “It’s all the more important, therefore, to take another look at America’s first major confrontation with Islamic fundamentalism.” Farber's detailed storyline looks past the day by day situations of the crisis, using the events leading up to the suffering as a means for understanding it. Farber shows in the book a portrayal of the United States in the 1970’s as a time of unsuccessful potentials in a nation overwhelmed by uncertainty and anxiety. It reveals the American government sick and ready for the fall of the Shah of Iran which many are unable to reckon with Ayatollah Khomeini and his militant Islamic followers. Farber

Throughout the book Farber emerges peculiar counterparts to the current terrorism crisis. Farber goes on to demonstrate how politicians unsuccessfully did not understand the anger of the Islamic fundamentalists towards the United States. Americans as a whole had no concern to the threats of the terrorist group. Farber’s “Taken Hostage”, is an enlightenment of history for America's first engagement with terrorism and Islamic fundamentalist. Farber states, “While November 4th, 1979, marked the beginning of the crisis for America, Iranians (at least those who cheered on the takeover) saw it differently; they would choose other days to mark the beginning of all that