Iran in the 20th Century: Historiography and Political Culture

by Touraj Atabaki (Editor)

Overview

Political upheaval has marked Iran's history throughout the twentieth century. Wars, revolutions, coups and the impact of modernism have shaped Iran's historiography, as they have the country's history. Originally based on oral and written sources, which underpinned traditional genealogical and dynastic history, Iran's historiography was transformed in the early 20th century with the development of a 'new' school of presenting history. Here emphasis shifted from the anecdotal story-telling genre to social, political, economic, cultural and religious history-writing. A new understanding of the nation state and the importance of identity and foreign relations in defining Iran's place in the modern world all served to transform the perspective of Iranian historiography. Touraj Atabaki here brings together a range of rich contributions from international scholars who cover the leading themes of the historiography of 20th-century Iran, including constitutional reform and revolution, literature and architecture, identity, women and gender, nationalism, modernism, Orientalism, Marxism and Islamism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857731876
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/17/2009
Series:	International Library of Iranian Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Touraj Atabaki is Professor of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at Leiden University and Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.
Touraj Atabaki is Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History and Professor Emeritus of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at Leiden University. Atabaki studied theoretical physics and later history at the University of London and Utrecht University. Following positions at Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam, he joined Leiden University where he held the Chair of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia.
Atabaki's research encompasses historiography, social history of labour and subaltern studies in Twentieth century Iran, the Ottoman Empire and Turkey as well as the Caucasus and Central Asia. His forthcoming publications are: Social History of the Iranian Oil Industry (Cambridge University Press) and Fallen in the Whirlwind: Life and Time of Iranian Migrant Labour and Political Activists during the Soviet Great Purge (Cambridge University Press). Atabaki's major publications and research projects can be found on:
https://socialhistory.org/en/staff/touraj-atabaki

Table of Contents

1- Note on Transliteration

2- Acknowledgment

3- Note on Contributors

4- Historiography of Twentieth Century Iran: Memory, Amnesia and Invention
Touraj Atabaki

5- Historiography and Crafting Iranian National Identity
Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi

6- Memory and Amnesia in the Historiography of the Constitutional Revolution
Abbas Amanat

7- Disintegrating the “Discourse of Disintegration”: Some Reflections on the Historiography of the Late Qajar Period and Iranian Cultural Memory
Oliver Bast

8- Agency and Subjectivity in Iranian National Historiography
Touraj Atabaki

9- The Nation's Poet: Ferdausi and the Iranian National Imagination
Afshin Marashi

10- The Pahlavi School of Historiography on the Pahlavi Era
Kaveh Bayat

11- Architectural Historiography 1921-1942
Kamran Safamanesh

12- The Paranoid Style in Iranian Historiography
H. E. Chehabi and Ahmad Ashraf

13- Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Historiography of Modern Iran
Mana Kia, Afsaneh Najmabadi and Sima Shakhsari

14-Marxism, Historiography and Historical Consciousness in Modern Iran: A
Preliminary Study
Afshin Matin-asgari

15- Islamist Historiography in Post-Revolutionary Iran
Kamran Scot Aghaie

16- Index

Editorial Reviews

"[A]n excellent addition to the ever-increasing literature on contemporary Iran... [T]his book should be included on the list of recommended readings on contemporary Iranian history." —CHOICE

From the Publisher