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The Age of Aryamehr: Late Pahlavi Iran and Its Global Entanglements
The reign of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1941–79), marked the high point of Iran’s global interconnectedness. Never before had Iranians felt the impact of global political, social, economic, and cultural forces so intimately in their national and daily lives, nor had Iranian actors played such an important global role – on battlefields, barricades, and in board rooms far beyond Iran’s borders. Iranian intellectuals, technocrats, politicians, workers, artists, and students alike were influenced by the global ideas, movements, markets, and conflicts that they also helped to shape.From the launch of the Shah’s White Revolution in 1963 to his overthrow in the popular revolution of 1978–79, Iran saw the longest period of sustained economic growth that the country had ever experienced. An entire generation took its cue from the shift from oil consumption to oil production to dream of, and aspire to, a modernized Iran, and the history of Iran in this period has tended to be presented as a prologue to the revolution. Those histories usually locate the political, social, and cultural origins of the revolution firmly within a national context, into which global actors intruded as Iranian actors retreated. While engaging with that national narrative, this volume is concerned with Iran’s place in the global history of the 1960s and ’70s. It examines and highlights the transnational threads that connected Pahlavi Iran to the world, from global traffic in modern art and narcotics to the embrace of American social science by Iranian technocrats and the encounter of European intellectuals with the Iranian Revolution. In doing so, this book seeks to fully incorporate Pahlavi Iran into the global history of the 1960s and ’70s, when Iran mattered far beyond its borders.
299 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 15, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 14, 2025
The book is a collection of scholarly essays covering different aspects of Iran’s history in the late Pahlavi era from the 60s to the 70s, whether political, social, economic, intellectual, or artistic, under the theme of Iran’s reaction to worldwide currents like the Cold War, decolonization, modernization theory, Third Worldism, etc.
This read left a mixed taste as it is a departure from the narrative common to Iranian histories of this era. As pointed out, it is a collection of extended scholarly essays, each dealing with specific topics, but the unifying theme is Iran’s interconnectedness with the world, how it reacted to global transnational movements, and how its domestic response to those movements affected its domestic policy, as well as the way it saw itself and presented that image to the world. Instead of portraying the era in question through domestic political developments within the boundaries of Iran (or to put it in other words, looking at Iran inwardly) this effort seeks to 'internationalize' the Iranian story in terms of seeing it as both a receptive part of worldwide changes and an active agent that utilized those changes and consciously modified them to accommodate domestic tastes. Present also is the tension between metropolitanism and nativism. What Iranians saw as Westoxification (i.e., the invasion of Western values and the recession of Iranian values), the elites saw as a way to widen the horizons of Iranians themselves. This tension is ubiquitous throughout the different topics mentioned.
Now, concerning what I did not like in this collection:
* There were chapters, specifically the one discussing the European left's reaction to the Iranian Revolution, that felt both dry and too academic for my taste. It kept zooming out to abstract commentary, circled around the same points rather than developing them, and assumed the reader’s knowledge concerning the political theme of the European left. It attempted to add clarifications but fell short at times.
* Among the remaining essays, there were those that felt redundant, that to me personally did not feel like they added up to anything. For example, the one that treated the longest-serving prime minister of that era as the prototype of the dandy. Even though I enjoyed the discussion, which I personally see as the most beautiful treatment of the figure of a dandy applied to an actual figure that I've ever read , and even though the discussion leaned at times toward the literary realm, I quite enjoyed it. But all in all, it did not serve anything of importance other than a quick biography of Amir-Abbas Hoveyda.
* In addition, some chapters felt too long. They could have been shorter because they kept repeating the same points over and over.
Now, with the exception of these three to four chapters, the rest varied from average to good. For example, there is a lovely treatment of economic policy and how the technocrats responsible for coming up with economic policy did not just copy and paste international trends and economic ideologies. Instead, they picked what worked from different disciplines, tweaked them to accommodate native Iranian taste, and applied them.
In way of a conclusion, I do not know if I would recommend this, as for me it is a niche topic that caters to specific tastes. It is different from other treatments of Iran and overall mostly average. There were one or two parts that made for an interesting read, but that is about it. Again, if your taste compels you, then read it, I guess. Other than that, knowing what I know now, would I have read it? More likely than not, no.
* The title of ‘Aryamehr’ or ‘Light of the Aryans’ was conferred upon the shah by the Iranian Parliament in 1965.*
Rating: 3/5
This read left a mixed taste as it is a departure from the narrative common to Iranian histories of this era. As pointed out, it is a collection of extended scholarly essays, each dealing with specific topics, but the unifying theme is Iran’s interconnectedness with the world, how it reacted to global transnational movements, and how its domestic response to those movements affected its domestic policy, as well as the way it saw itself and presented that image to the world. Instead of portraying the era in question through domestic political developments within the boundaries of Iran (or to put it in other words, looking at Iran inwardly) this effort seeks to 'internationalize' the Iranian story in terms of seeing it as both a receptive part of worldwide changes and an active agent that utilized those changes and consciously modified them to accommodate domestic tastes. Present also is the tension between metropolitanism and nativism. What Iranians saw as Westoxification (i.e., the invasion of Western values and the recession of Iranian values), the elites saw as a way to widen the horizons of Iranians themselves. This tension is ubiquitous throughout the different topics mentioned.
Now, concerning what I did not like in this collection:
* There were chapters, specifically the one discussing the European left's reaction to the Iranian Revolution, that felt both dry and too academic for my taste. It kept zooming out to abstract commentary, circled around the same points rather than developing them, and assumed the reader’s knowledge concerning the political theme of the European left. It attempted to add clarifications but fell short at times.
* Among the remaining essays, there were those that felt redundant, that to me personally did not feel like they added up to anything. For example, the one that treated the longest-serving prime minister of that era as the prototype of the dandy. Even though I enjoyed the discussion, which I personally see as the most beautiful treatment of the figure of a dandy applied to an actual figure that I've ever read , and even though the discussion leaned at times toward the literary realm, I quite enjoyed it. But all in all, it did not serve anything of importance other than a quick biography of Amir-Abbas Hoveyda.
* In addition, some chapters felt too long. They could have been shorter because they kept repeating the same points over and over.
Now, with the exception of these three to four chapters, the rest varied from average to good. For example, there is a lovely treatment of economic policy and how the technocrats responsible for coming up with economic policy did not just copy and paste international trends and economic ideologies. Instead, they picked what worked from different disciplines, tweaked them to accommodate native Iranian taste, and applied them.
In way of a conclusion, I do not know if I would recommend this, as for me it is a niche topic that caters to specific tastes. It is different from other treatments of Iran and overall mostly average. There were one or two parts that made for an interesting read, but that is about it. Again, if your taste compels you, then read it, I guess. Other than that, knowing what I know now, would I have read it? More likely than not, no.
* The title of ‘Aryamehr’ or ‘Light of the Aryans’ was conferred upon the shah by the Iranian Parliament in 1965.*
Rating: 3/5
July 22, 2025
An emotional, eye-opening masterpiece that every Iranian should read, at least once, if not many times.
The Age of Aryamehr is not just a book, it's a time machine. A deeply researched, fact-driven chronicle of Iran under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, it doesn’t try to persuade or idolize. It simply presents the facts. But sometimes, facts alone are enough to break your heart.
Reading this book was a profoundly emotional experience. I found myself in tears more than once, not just for the Shah, not just for Prime Minister Hoveyda, but for Iran... for the nation we could have been. For the dreams interrupted. For the lives lost. For the youth of today who know only struggle, hijab patrols, economic despair, and executions instead of dignity, freedom, and progress.
There’s a quiet strength in how the book presents its subjects. It doesn’t glorify; it lets the truth speak. But some truths are so noble, so grand, that they shine on their own. The Shah’s story, and those of the people around him, echo with such intensity that you don’t need embellishment, you just need open eyes and a willing heart.
I often asked myself while reading: If the world hadn’t united to bring him down, what would Iran look like today? Would we still be crying over heroes like Mohammad Mehdi Karami or Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, or would we be living in the Iran they dreamed of?
Reading this book during today’s hardships, when life in Iran feels heavier than during even the Mongol invasion (the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire), is both painful and necessary. It reminds us that there was a time of vision and hope. And perhaps, there still can be.
This is a book I will return to again and again, not just to remember the past, but to understand the present and dream of a better future.
The Age of Aryamehr is not just a book, it's a time machine. A deeply researched, fact-driven chronicle of Iran under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, it doesn’t try to persuade or idolize. It simply presents the facts. But sometimes, facts alone are enough to break your heart.
Reading this book was a profoundly emotional experience. I found myself in tears more than once, not just for the Shah, not just for Prime Minister Hoveyda, but for Iran... for the nation we could have been. For the dreams interrupted. For the lives lost. For the youth of today who know only struggle, hijab patrols, economic despair, and executions instead of dignity, freedom, and progress.
There’s a quiet strength in how the book presents its subjects. It doesn’t glorify; it lets the truth speak. But some truths are so noble, so grand, that they shine on their own. The Shah’s story, and those of the people around him, echo with such intensity that you don’t need embellishment, you just need open eyes and a willing heart.
I often asked myself while reading: If the world hadn’t united to bring him down, what would Iran look like today? Would we still be crying over heroes like Mohammad Mehdi Karami or Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, or would we be living in the Iran they dreamed of?
Reading this book during today’s hardships, when life in Iran feels heavier than during even the Mongol invasion (the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire), is both painful and necessary. It reminds us that there was a time of vision and hope. And perhaps, there still can be.
This is a book I will return to again and again, not just to remember the past, but to understand the present and dream of a better future.
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