Iran's Quiet Revolution: The Downfall of the Pahlavi State

Ali Mirsepassi's book,Iran's Quiet Revolution, challenges the prevailing view of pre-Revolution Iran by documenting how the cultural elites of the Pahlavi State promoted Gharbzadegi discourses as ideological alternatives to modern and Western-inspired cultural attitudes. This influenced Persian identity politics and projected Iranian modernity as a mistaken modernity, despite the regime's own modernisation programme. Mirsepassi sheds new light on the Pahlavi State as an ideological gambler, inadvertently empowering its fundamentalist enemies and spreading a quiet revolution through secular and religious civil society.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 250 pages
Publication date: 29 August 2019
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Ali Mirsepassi's groundbreaking work, "Iran's Quiet Revolution," offers a fresh and compelling perspective on Iran's politics and culture during the 1960s and 1970s. Challenging the prevailing view of pre-Revolution Iran, Mirsepassi documents how the cultural elites of the Pahlavi State promoted a series of striking discourses known as "Gharbzadegi" or "Westoxification." These discourses were intended as ideological alternatives to modern and Western-inspired cultural attitudes and had a significant impact on Persian identity politics. Despite the regime's own ferocious modernisation programme, Mirsepassi argues that these discourses portrayed Iranian modernity as a "mistaken modernity," inadvertently empowering its fundamentalist enemies and fostering a "quiet revolution" within secular and religious civil society.

In his book, Mirsepassi sheds new light on the Pahlavi State as an ideological gambler, inadvertently empowering its fundamentalist opponents and spreading a "quiet revolution" through secular and religious civil society. He proposes a new theoretical framework for understanding the anti-modern discourses of figures such as Ahmad Fardid, Jalal Al-e Ahmad, and Ali Shariati, providing a radical re-interpretation of twentieth-century Iranian political history. By contextualising these events within the creative yet tragic Iranian nation-making experience, Mirsepassi offers a fresh perspective on a period that has often been misunderstood and overlooked.

"Iran's Quiet Revolution" is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complex and multifaceted history of Iran during the 1960s and 1970s. It provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of the region's political, social, and cultural dynamics and offers a new lens through which to view the events of that time.

Weight: 362g
Dimension: 232 x 159 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108725323