Saturday's Read: Iran Between Two Revolutions

Abrahamian, Ervand. Iran Between Two Revolutions. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982)
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Thirty years after its publication, Ervand Abrahamian's Iran Between Two Revolutions (1982), still holds its place as a standard text on the turbulent political history of twentieth-century Iran. Iran Between focuses on three pivotal events: the Constitutional Revolution (starting in 1905) up until Mussadiq's deposition; the era of the (communist) Tudeh Party and surrounding politics (1941-1953); and the Islamic Revolution (1978-79). It is notable for the breadth of sources consulted, from Iranian periodicals to Majlis debates to British archival sources, as well as for the fact that Abrahamian relied heavily on Persian sources even when English-language options were available.

Abrahamian does not always digest and contextualize the events that he describes; this is not a tight, theoretically-integrated narrative. His discussion is descriptive rather than analytical, an approach that is uncommon in most contemporary academic historical writing. This is not necessarily a flaw however, though it does place the onus on the reader to draw conclusions. Of particular interest is his explanation of the root causes of the Islamic Revolution. He describes it as a result "uneven development," explaining that social change and economic expansion during the oil boom years were unmatched by equivalent political development. Thus middle class intellectual protest and lack of political representation led to an alliance between mullahs and the middle class, out of which sprang the retrenched, ideologically-driven Islamic state under Khomayni.