Iran in the 21st Century

Abstract

This multidisciplinary study addresses a host of issues facing Iran. Througha comprehensive study of political, economic, cultural, social, and securityrelatedquestions, seventeen Iranian researchers tried to create a book that is, as Katouzian states in her preface, “likely to become a standard text for therelevant academic courses.”In an elaborate introduction, the editors paint a quick picture of eventsendured by the Iranian people during the twentieth century up to theadvent of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Farideh Farhi examines the questionof crafting a national identity as a national preoccupation in modernIranian history. She points to the central role of a narrative reference thatbrings together and connects all Iranians. The second main point of heranalysis is the ongoing tension between what she calls autocratic/theocratic/arbitrary rule and democracy/chaos and Iran’s relationship with theoutside world. Farhi studies three sets of discursive transformations toillustrate her main points: the transformation of the national question intoan ethnic challenge, of the Islam/pre-Islam dichotomy into a confrontationbetween popular sovereignty and patrimonialism, and of how “Iran” seesitself in the world...