The Loneliest Revolution: A Memoir of Solidarity and Struggle in Iran

The Loneliest Revolution is a memoir of life in Iran in the tumultuous years leading up to the 1979 revolution that offers an intimate window onto the Iranian revolution. It combines the sensitivity of a memoir with the expertise of a scholarly study to explore lesser-known figures and events in the history of the Iranian revolution.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 31 March 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

In the tumultuous years leading up to the 1979 revolution, Marjane Satrapi offers an intimate window into the Iranian revolution, a time when we need to be thinking about it the most. Through her memoir, she recounts the political contests between Islamists, leftists, and others, culminating in one of the most surprising revolutions of the twentieth century. Combining the sensitivity of a memoir with the expertise of a scholarly study, Satrapi explores lesser-known figures and events in the history of the Iranian revolution. She shifts the center of Iran's revolutionary history away from its capital to its provinces, showing how the global and local interacted at multiple levels.

In October 1978, Ali Mirsepassi's life took a dramatic turn when he was stabbed and dumped in a ditch on the outskirts of Tehran for speaking against Khomeini. In his book, Mirsepassi digs up these and other painful memories to ask: How did the Iranian revolutionary movement come to this? How did a people united in solidarity and struggle end up so divided?

Through his first-hand account, Mirsepassi deftly weaves together his insights as a sociologist of Iran with his memories of provincial life and radical activism in the 1960s and 1970s Iran. He pays attention to the everyday struggles Iranians faced as they searched for ways to learn about and make history despite state surveillance and censorship. The Loneliest Revolution revisits questions of leftist failure and Islamist victory and ultimately asks us all to probe the memories, personal and collective, that we leave unspoken.

This book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Iranian revolution and its aftermath. It sheds light on the complex social and political dynamics that shaped the revolution and its impact on Iran and the world. Satrapi's writing is engaging and accessible, making it a must-read for anyone interested in history, politics, and the Middle East.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399511421