Cauldron of Turmoil

This book discusses the origins and course of the crisis in the Persian Gulf, as well as its background and repercussions: from the oil price boom of the middle 1970's to Iran's 1978-79 revolution; from the American diplomats held hostage between 1979 and 1981 to the eight-year, million-casualty Iran-Iraq war, which gradually drew the U.S. in as "co-belligerent".

306 pages, hardcover with dust jacket, very good condition.

There once was a wealthy American manufacturer of bathroom fixtures named Charles Crane, a well-educated, public-spirited man who became interested in international affairs. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson asked him to serve on a commission investigating conditions in the Middle East after World War I. An aide to Wilson explained that the President thought the main qualification for men like Crane to be emissaries to the Middle East was that "they knew nothing about it."'