IRAN IN CONTEXT | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Sep 15, 2026 6:00 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Sep 15, 2026 6:00 pm
450K
Please join Lisa Gibbs, CEO of the Pulitzer Center, in a timely conversation with Pulitzer Center grantees Reza Sayah and Scott Anderson about the war in Iran—and the role of journalism in helping illuminate the underlying causes of conflicts in the region. A discussion of Anderson's award-winning book King of Kings, a critical lens into the history of the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution, including the role of the United States. We will also revisit the seminal work Fractured Lands, published by The New York Times in 2016. Sayah will provide a current perspective on the realities in Iran today, including perspectives from citizens across the country—from senior officials to teachers, mothers, doctors, students, and shopkeepers. Anderson will be signing copies of King of Kings and Fractured Lands following the program.
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution—A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation
On New Year’s Eve 1977, President Jimmy Carter toasted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, extolling Iran as “an island of stability” due to “your leadership and to the respect and the admiration and love which your people give to you.” The shah, known as the King of Kings, seemed invulnerable, and he was invaluable to the United States as an ally in the Cold War. Twelve and a half months later, the shah fled Iran into exile, forced from the throne by a volcanic religious revolution led by a fiery cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini. How could the United States have been so blind?
Based on voluminous research and dozens of interviews, Scott Anderson weaves the spellbinding story of a dictator oblivious to the disdain of his subjects and a superpower blundering into disaster. The Iranian Revolution, Anderson convincingly argues, was as world-shattering an event as the French and Russian Revolutions. Around the globe, including in the United States, the hatred of economically marginalized, religiously fervent masses for a wealthy secular elite has led to violence and upheaval—and Iran was the template. King of Kings is a bravura work of history, and a warning.
Fractured Lands
From the bestselling author of Lawrence in Arabia, a piercing account of how the contemporary Arab world came to be riven by catastrophe since the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq. First featured as an entire issue of The New York Times Magazine that was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
In 2011, a series of anti-government uprisings shook the Middle East and North Africa in what would become known as the Arab Spring. Few could predict that these convulsions, initially hailed in the West as a triumph of democracy, would give way to brutal civil war, the terrors of the Islamic State, and a global refugee crisis. But, as New York Times bestselling author Scott Anderson shows, the seeds of catastrophe had been sown long before. In this gripping account, Anderson examines the myriad complex causes of the region’s profound unraveling, tracing the ideological conflicts of the present to their origins in the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003 and beyond. From this investigation emerges a rare view into a land in upheaval through the eyes of six individuals—the matriarch of a dissident Egyptian family; a Libyan Air Force cadet with divided loyalties; a Kurdish physician from a prominent warrior clan; a Syrian university student caught in civil war; an Iraqi activist for women’s rights; and an Iraqi day laborer-turned-ISIS fighter. A probing and insightful work of reportage, Fractured Lands offers a penetrating portrait of the contemporary Arab world and brings the stunning realities of an unprecedented geopolitical tragedy into crystalline focus.
This event is free and open to all. Doors open to guests at 5:30pm. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of KING OF KING’S will be available for purchase before, during and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.
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Scott Anderson is a veteran war correspondent who has reported from Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Northern Ireland, Chechnya, Sudan, Bosnia, El Salvador and many other strife-torn countries. A contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, his work has also appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Harper’s and Outside. He is the author of two novels and six works of nonfiction, including Lawrence in Arabia, an international bestseller, and most recently King of Kings, the story of the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution, and winner of the 2025 Kirkus Prize for nonfiction.
Reza Sayah is a journalist and filmmaker currently based in Tehran, Iran. He has reported for international news organizations including PBS NewsHour, CNN, Al Jazeera, and France 24. Most recently, he reported on the war between the United States and Iran. Last month, he was the first western journalist ever to interview an active senior officer of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Lisa Gibbs is President and CEO of the Pulitzer Center. She joined the Center in 2024 after serving as Vice President of Philanthropic Development at The Associated Press (AP). Before that she was a reporter for Money magazine, executive business editor for The Miami Herald and global business editor at the AP, leading a team of 60 journalists around the world. She also co-founded the Xana Fund to support women business journalists interested in becoming industry leaders.
BOOK DETAILS
King of Kings
The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation
By Scott Anderson
August 4, 2026 | Paperback, 528 Pages, $25
Fractured Lands
How the Arab World Came Apart
By Scott Anderson
May 2, 2017 | Paperback, 240 Pages, $15
