A Century of Revolution: Social Movements in Iran

by John Foran

Before late 1978 Iran did not occupy a large place in the public mind, mass media, or academic pursuits. With the massive upheaval of the next few months, all this changed--and the world is still trying to catch up with the dramatic events that brought Iran to its attention. This volume offers a much needed look into the historical, social, and political developments leading up to the Iranian revolution. Bringing together a group of scholars, historians, and social scientists, most of them Iranian in origin, the book documents an extraordinary revolutionary heritage that predates this century.

Each contributor examines a critical moment in Iranian social history-on its own terms as well as within a larger theoretical and comparative context. The topics they take up include:
• the Tobacco Rebellion of 1890-91
• the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11
• the rise of Reza Khan between 1921 and 1925
• the autonomy movement in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan after World War II
• the oil nationalization movement under Musaddiq between 1951and 1953
• the unrest of the 1960-63 period
• the Iranian revolution of 1977-79
• the state of Iran since the revolution

Thoughout, common themes emerge, especially the heterogeneous bases of Iranian social movements with respect to class, gender, and ethnicity, as well as the diverse discourses-nationalist, Islamic, socialist, populist, and radical-that have animated these movements. Representing a wide variety of perspectives and approaches, this volume provides crucial insight into the widely watched but poorly understood phenomenon of present-day Iran.

Contributors: Janet Afary, Purdue University; John Foran, University of California, Santa Barbara; Amir Hassanpour, Uppsala University; Mansoor Moaddel, Eastern Michigan University; Val Moghadam, United Nations University; Misgah Parsa, Dartmouth College; Sussan Siavoshi, Trinity University; Michael Zirinsky, Boise State University

Genres: History

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

John Foran (born 1955) is an American sociologist with research interests in global climate justice; radical social movements, revolutions, and radical social change; Third World cultural studies; and Latin American and Middle Eastern studies. He has a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and is a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Selected publications

On the Edges of Development: Cultural Interventions (coeditor, Routledge, 2009)

Revolution in the Making of the Modern World: Social Identities, Globalization, and Modernity (coeditor, Routledge, 2008)

Taking Power: On the Origins of Third World Revolutions (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

Feminist Futures: Re-imagining Women, Culture and Development (coeditor, Zed Press, 2003);

The Future of Revolutions: Re-thinking Radical Change in the Age of Globalization (ed., Zed Press, 2003);

Theorizing Revolutions (ed., Routledge, 1997);

Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran From 1500 to the Revolution (Westview Press, 1993).