Revolutionary Iran

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190468963
Total Pages : 535 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Revolutionary Iran by : Michael Axworthy

Download or read book Revolutionary Iran written by Michael Axworthy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Revolutionary Iran, Michael Axworthy guides us through recent Iranian history from shortly before the 1979 Islamic revolution through the summer of 2009, when Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran by the hundreds of thousands, demanding free, democratic government. Axworthy explains how that outpouring of support for an end to tyranny in Iran paused and then moved on to other areas in the region like Egypt and Libya, leaving Iran's leadership unchanged. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a defining moment of the modern era. Its success unleashed a wave of Islamist fervor across the Middle East and signaled a sharp decline in the appeal of Western ideologies in the Islamic world. Axworthy takes readers through the major periods in Iranian history over the last thirty years: the overthrow of the old regime and the creation of the new one; the Iran-Iraq war; the reconstruction era following the war; the reformist wave led by Mohammed Khatami; and the present day, in which reactionaries have re-established control. Throughout, he emphasizes that the Iranian revolution was centrally important in modern history because it provided the world with a clear model of development that was not rooted in Western ideologies. Whereas the world's major revolutions of the previous two centuries had been fuelled by Western, secular ideologies, the Iranian Revolution drew its inspiration from Islam. Revolutionary Iran is both richly textured and from one of the leading authorities on the region; combining an expansive scope with the most accessible and definitive account of this epoch in all its humanity.

The Iranian Revolution at Forty

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Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815737947
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis The Iranian Revolution at Forty by : Suzanne Maloney

Download or read book The Iranian Revolution at Forty written by Suzanne Maloney and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2020-02-25 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Iran—and the world around it—have changed in the four decades since a revolutionary theocracy took power Iran’s 1979 revolution is one of the most important events of the late twentieth century. The overthrow of the Western-leaning Shah and the emergence of a unique religious government reshaped Iran, dramatically shifted the balance of power in the Middle East and generated serious challenges to the global geopolitical order—challenges that continue to this day. The seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran later that same year and the ensuing hostage crisis resulted in an acrimonious breach between America and Iran that remains unresolved to this day. The revolution also precipitated a calamitous war between Iran and Iraq and an expansion of the U.S. military’s role in maintaining security in and around the Persian Gulf. Forty years after the revolution, more than two dozen experts look back on the rise of the Islamic Republic and explore what the startling events of 1979 continue to mean for the volatile Middle East as well as the rest of the world. The authors explore the events of the revolution itself; whether its promises have been kept or broken; the impact of clerical rule on ordinary Iranians, especially women; the continuing antagonism with the United States; and the repercussions not only for Iran’s immediate neighborhood but also for the broader Middle East. Complete with a helpful timeline and suggestions for further reading, this book helps put the Iranian revolution in historical and geopolitical perspective, both for experts who have long studied the Middle East and for curious readers interested in fallout from the intense turmoil of four decades ago.

Reconstructed Lives

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Publisher : Woodrow Wilson Center Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801856198
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (561 download)

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Book Synopsis Reconstructed Lives by : Haleh Esfandiari

Download or read book Reconstructed Lives written by Haleh Esfandiari and published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press. This book was released on 1997-07 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iranian women tell in their own words what the revolution attempted and how they responded. The Islamic revolution of 1979 transformed all areas of Iranian life. For women, the consequences were extensive and profound, as the state set out to reverse legal and social rights women had won and to dictate many aspects of women's lives, including what they could study and how they must dress and relate to men. Reconstructed Lives presents Iranian women telling in their own words what the revolution attempted and how they responded. Through a series of interviews with professional and working women in Iran—doctors, lawyers, writers, professors, secretaries, businesswomen—Haleh Esfandiari gathers dramatic accounts of what has happened to their lives as women in an Islamic society. She and her informants describe the strategies by which women try to and sometimes succeed in subverting the state's agenda. Esfandiari also provides historical background on the women's movement in Iran. She finds evidence in Iran's experience that even women from "traditional" and working classes do not easily surrender rights or access they have gained to education, career opportunities, and a public role.

The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674039834
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (398 download)

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Book Synopsis The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran by : Charles Kurzman

Download or read book The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran written by Charles Kurzman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-06 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, would remain on the throne for the foreseeable future: This was the firm conclusion of a top-secret CIA analysis issued in October 1978. One hundred days later the shah--despite his massive military, fearsome security police, and superpower support was overthrown by a popular and largely peaceful revolution. But the CIA was not alone in its myopia, as Charles Kurzman reveals in this penetrating work; Iranians themselves, except for a tiny minority, considered a revolution inconceivable until it actually occurred. Revisiting the circumstances surrounding the fall of the shah, Kurzman offers rare insight into the nature and evolution of the Iranian revolution and into the ultimate unpredictability of protest movements in general. As one Iranian recalls, The future was up in the air. Through interviews and eyewitness accounts, declassified security documents and underground pamphlets, Kurzman documents the overwhelming sense of confusion that gripped pre-revolutionary Iran, and that characterizes major protest movements. His book provides a striking picture of the chaotic conditions under which Iranians acted, participating in protest only when they expected others to do so too, the process approaching critical mass in unforeseen and unforeseeable ways. Only when large numbers of Iranians began to think the unthinkable, in the words of the U.S. ambassador, did revolutionary expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. A corrective to 20-20 hindsight, this book reveals shortcomings of analyses that make the Iranian revolution or any major protest movement seem inevitable in retrospect.

Postrevolutionary Iran

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Publisher : Syracuse University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815635741
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (357 download)

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Book Synopsis Postrevolutionary Iran by : Mehrzad Boroujerdi

Download or read book Postrevolutionary Iran written by Mehrzad Boroujerdi and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1979 revolution fundamentally altered Iran’s political landscape as a generation of inexperienced clerics who did not hail from the ranks of the upper class—and were not tainted by association with the old regime—came to power. The actions and intentions of these truculent new leaders and their lay allies caused major international concern. Meanwhile, Iran’s domestic and foreign policy and its nuclear program have loomed large in daily news coverage. Despite global consternation, however, our knowledge about Iran’s political elite remains skeletal. Nearly four decades after the clergy became the state elite par excellence, there has been no empirical study of the recruitment, composition, and circulation of the Iranian ruling members after 1979. Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook provides the most comprehensive collection of data on political life in postrevolutionary Iran, including coverage of 36 national elections, more than 400 legal and outlawed political organizations, and family ties among the elite. It provides biographical sketches of more than 2,300 political personalities ranging from cabinet ministers and parliament deputies to clerical, judicial, and military leaders, much of this information previously unavailable in English. Providing a cartography of the complex structure of power in postrevolutionary Iran, this volume offers a window not only into the immediate years before and after the Iranian Revolution but also into what has happened during the last four turbulent decades. This volume and the data it contains will be invaluable to policymakers, researchers, and scholars of the Middle East alike.

Days of God

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416597824
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Days of God by : James Buchan

Download or read book Days of God written by James Buchan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A myth-busting insider’s account of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that destroyed US influence in the country and transformed the politics of the Middle East and the world. The 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran was one of the seminal events of our time. It inaugurated more than thirty years of war in the Middle East and fostered an Islamic radicalism that shapes foreign policy in the United States and Europe to this day. Drawing on his lifetime of engagement with Iran, James Buchan explains the history that gave rise to the Revolution, in which Ayatollah Khomeini and his supporters displaced the Shah with little diffi­culty. Mystifyingly to outsiders, the people of Iran turned their backs on a successful Westernized government for an amateurish religious regime. Buchan dispels myths about the Iranian Revolution and instead assesses the historical forces to which it responded. He puts the extremism of the Islamic regime in perspective: a truly radical revolution, it can be compared to the French or Russian Revolu­tions. Using recently declassified diplomatic papers and Persian-language news reports, diaries, memoirs, interviews, and theological tracts, Buchan illumi­nates both Khomeini and the Shah. His writing is always clear, dispassionate, and informative. The Iranian Revolution was a turning point in modern history, and James Buchan’s Days of God is, as London’s Independent put it, “a compelling, beautifully written history” of that event.

Guardians of the Revolution

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199793136
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (931 download)

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Book Synopsis Guardians of the Revolution by : Ray Takeyh

Download or read book Guardians of the Revolution written by Ray Takeyh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over a quarter century, Iran has been one of America's chief nemeses. Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah in 1979, the relationship between the two nations has been antagonistic: revolutionary guards chanting against the Great Satan, Bush fulminating against the Axis of Evil, Iranian support for Hezbollah, and President Ahmadinejad blaming the U.S. for the world's ills. The unending war of words suggests an intractable divide between Iran and the West, one that may very well lead to a shooting war in the near future. But as Ray Takeyh shows in this accessible and authoritative history of Iran's relations with the world since the revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans is a nation that is far more pragmatic--and complex--than many in the West have been led to believe. Takeyh explodes many of our simplistic myths of Iran as an intransigently Islamist foe of the West. Tracing the course of Iranian policy since the 1979 revolution, Takeyh identifies four distinct periods: the revolutionary era of the 1980s, the tempered gradualism following the death of Khomeini and the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1989, the "reformist" period from 1997-2005 under President Khatami, and the shift toward confrontation and radicalism since the election of President Ahmadinejad in 2005. Takeyh shows that three powerful forces--Islamism, pragmatism, and great power pretensions--have competed in each of these periods, and that Iran's often paradoxical policies are in reality a series of compromises between the hardliners and the moderates, often with wild oscillations between pragmatism and ideological dogmatism. The U.S.'s task, Takeyh argues, is to find strategies that address Iran's objectionable behavior without demonizing this key player in an increasingly vital and volatile region. With its clear-sighted grasp of both nuance and historical sweep, Guardians of the Revolution will stand as the standard work on this controversial--and central--actor in world politics for years to come.

Iran

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Publisher : Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN 13 : 0299184730
Total Pages : 361 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (991 download)

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Book Synopsis Iran by : Michael M. J. Fischer

Download or read book Iran written by Michael M. J. Fischer and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2003-07-15 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlike much of the instant analysis that appeared at the time of the Iranian revolution, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution is based upon extensive fieldwork carried out in Iran. Michael M. J. Fischer draws upon his rich experience with the mullahs and their students in the holy city of Qum, composing a picture of Iranian society from the inside—the lives of ordinary people, the way that each class interprets Islam, and the role of religion and religious education in the culture. Fischer’s book, with its new introduction updating arguments for the post-Revolutionary period, brings a dynamic view of a society undergoing metamorphosis, which remains fundamental to understanding Iranian society in the early twenty-first century.

Iran's Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and Narratives of the Enlightenment

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Author :
Publisher : Gingko Library
ISBN 13 : 1909942944
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis Iran's Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and Narratives of the Enlightenment by : Ali M. Ansari

Download or read book Iran's Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and Narratives of the Enlightenment written by Ali M. Ansari and published by Gingko Library. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Constitutional Revolution of 1906 opened the way for enormous change in Persia, heralding the modern era and creating a model for later political and cultural movements in the region. Broad in its scope, this multidisciplinary volume brings together essays from leading scholars in Iranian Studies to explore the significance of this revolution, its origins, and the people who made it happen. As the authors show, this period was one of unprecedented debate within Iran’s burgeoning press. Many different groups fought to shape the course of the Revolution, which opened up seemingly boundless possibilities for the country’s future and affected nearly every segment of its society. Exploring themes such as the role of women, the use of photography, and the uniqueness of the Revolution as an Iranian experience, the authors tell a story of immense transition, as the old order of the Shah subsided and was replaced by new institutions, new forms of expression, and a new social and political order.

The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108478425
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War by : Annie Tracy Samuel

Download or read book The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War written by Annie Tracy Samuel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of how Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) view their history and their roles in the Iran-Iraq War.

The Military in Post-Revolutionary Iran

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317430735
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

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Book Synopsis The Military in Post-Revolutionary Iran by : Hesam Forozan

Download or read book The Military in Post-Revolutionary Iran written by Hesam Forozan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-14 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the 'Sepah', has wielded considerable and increasing power in Iran in recent decades. Established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini as a paramilitary organisation charged with protecting the nascent Islamic regime and countering the untrustworthy Imperial army (or 'Artesh'), the Sepah has evolved into one of the most powerful political, ideological, military and economic players in Iran over recent years. The Sepah is entrusted with a diverse set of indoctrination apparatus, training programmes and system welfare provisions intended to broaden support for the regime. Although established as a paramilitary organisation, the Sepah developed to have its own ministry, complex bureaucracy and diversified functions, alongside its own network and personnel. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the Sepah and its role. It examines the position of the Sepah in Iranian state and society, explores the nature of the Sepah's involvement in politics, and discusses the impact of the Sepah's political rise on Iran's economy and foreign policy. Contemporary Iran can only be fully understood by an awareness of the ongoing in-fighting among regime factions and increasing popular demands for social change – knowing about the Sepah is central to all this.

Foucault and the Iranian Revolution

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226007871
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Foucault and the Iranian Revolution by : Janet Afary

Download or read book Foucault and the Iranian Revolution written by Janet Afary and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-07-15 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1978, as the protests against the Shah of Iran reached their zenith, philosopher Michel Foucault was working as a special correspondent for Corriere della Sera and le Nouvel Observateur. During his little-known stint as a journalist, Foucault traveled to Iran, met with leaders like Ayatollah Khomeini, and wrote a series of articles on the revolution. Foucault and the Iranian Revolution is the first book-length analysis of these essays on Iran, the majority of which have never before appeared in English. Accompanying the analysis are annotated translations of the Iran writings in their entirety and the at times blistering responses from such contemporaneous critics as Middle East scholar Maxime Rodinson as well as comments on the revolution by feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. In this important and controversial account, Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson illuminate Foucault's support of the Islamist movement. They also show how Foucault's experiences in Iran contributed to a turning point in his thought, influencing his ideas on the Enlightenment, homosexuality, and his search for political spirituality. Foucault and the Iranian Revolution informs current discussion on the divisions that have reemerged among Western intellectuals over the response to radical Islamism after September 11. Foucault's provocative writings are thus essential for understanding the history and the future of the West's relationship with Iran and, more generally, to political Islam. In their examination of these journalistic pieces, Afary and Anderson offer a surprising glimpse into the mind of a celebrated thinker.

English in Post-Revolutionary Iran

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Author :
Publisher : Multilingual Matters
ISBN 13 : 1847699081
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (476 download)

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Book Synopsis English in Post-Revolutionary Iran by : Maryam Borjian

Download or read book English in Post-Revolutionary Iran written by Maryam Borjian and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2013 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unravels the story of English, the language of "the enemies", in post-revolutionary Iran. Situating English within the nation's broader social, political, economic and historical contexts, the book explores the politics, causes, and agents of the two diverging trends of indigenization/localization and internationalization/Anglo-Americanization in English education in Iran over the past three decades.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard

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Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1597977012
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (979 download)

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Book Synopsis Iran's Revolutionary Guard by : Steven O'Hern

Download or read book Iran's Revolutionary Guard written by Steven O'Hern and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-10-31 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the Iranian Revolution more than thirty years ago, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Revolutionary Guard, has conducted covert and overt military operations, built an economic empire, and trained, financed, and guided terrorists to pursue one goalùthe preservation and expansion of the Islamic revolution. Inside Iran the IRGC influences the country's politics, economy, and foreign policy, and controls its nuclear program. Outside Iran the operations of the IRGC and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shiite militias in Iraq, have left a trail of deathùfrom the 1983 truck bombings in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. peacekeepers and 58 French paratroopers to numerous attacks on U.S. (and allied) troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, no longer content to strike in Iraq and Afghanistan or at targets in the Middle East and south Asia, the IRGC and Hezbollah operate throughout North and South America, developing the capability to strike the continental United States and deliver a blow to America's economy far worse than today's financial crisis. In Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Steven O'Hern reveals new information about the IRGC and Hezbollah operations inside America based on interviews with former and active members of the FBI, CIA, local law enforcement, military intelligence, and even one former Revolutionary Guard officer. The author details how the IRGC has grown into such a dangerous foe and explains how its members' activities have put the American economy and American lives at risk. His research suggests that the IRGC may be planning to explode, high above a Midwestern city, a nuclear weapon that would emit an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to render anything with a computer chip useless, including the hundreds of transformers that control the country's electrical grid. One thing is certain, according to O'Hern: the Revolutionary Guard is a serious threat to the well-being of all U.S. citizens.

Postrevolutionary Iran

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Author :
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 9781793620323
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Postrevolutionary Iran by : R. R. Asaadi

Download or read book Postrevolutionary Iran written by R. R. Asaadi and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How have Iran's political institutions evolved since the revolution? This book is first a study of the structure of Iran's political institutions, of their composition and function in theory; and second an analysis of their evolution in practice over the first forty years of the Islamic Republic regime.

The Century of Revolution

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134941684
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (349 download)

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Book Synopsis The Century of Revolution by : Christopher Hill

Download or read book The Century of Revolution written by Christopher Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is an immense range of books about the English Civil War, but one historian stands head and shoulders above all others for the quality of his work on the subject. In 1961 Christopher Hill first published what has come to be acknowledged as the best concise history of the period, Century of Revolution. Stimulating, vivid and provocative, his graphic depiction of the turbulent era examines ordinary English men and women as well as kings and queens.

A Social Revolution

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Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520280814
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)

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Book Synopsis A Social Revolution by : Kevan Harris

Download or read book A Social Revolution written by Kevan Harris and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, political observers and pundits have characterized the Islamic Republic of Iran as an ideologically rigid state on the verge of collapse, exclusively connected to a narrow social base. In A Social Revolution, Kevan Harris convincingly demonstrates how they are wrong. Previous studies ignore the forceful consequences of three decades of social change following the 1979 revolution. Today, more people in the country are connected to welfare and social policy institutions than to any other form of state organization. In fact, much of Iran’s current political turbulence is the result of the success of these social welfare programs, which have created newly educated and mobilized social classes advocating for change. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted in Iran between 2006 and 2011, Harris shows how the revolutionary regime endured though the expansion of health, education, and aid programs that have both embedded the state in everyday life and empowered its challengers. This first serious book on the social policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran opens a new line of inquiry into the study of welfare states in countries where they are often overlooked or ignored.