Peyman Vahabzadeh — Iran’s Struggles for Social Justice. Economics, Agency, Justice, Activism (2017)

Hardcover: 335 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2017 edition (January 18, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3319442260
ISBN-13: 978-3319442266
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches

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This interdisciplinary volume offers a range of studies spanning the various historical, political, legal, and cultural features of social justice in Iran, and proposes that the present-day realities of life in Iran could not be farther from the promises of the Iranian Revolution. The ideals of social justice and participatory democracy that galvanized a resilient nation in 1979 have been abandoned as an avaricious ruling elite has privatized the economy, abandoned social programs and subsidy payments for the poor, and suppressed the struggles of women, workers, students, and minorities for equality. At its core, Iran’s Struggles for Social Justice seeks to educate and to develop a new discourse on social justice in Iran. 

“A key element informing the Iranian revolution of 1979 was the ideal of ‘social justice.’ No more. This unique collection of studies examines the underlying dynamics behind the decline of this rather noble principle, and suggests ways to resurrect its spirit. Written by young and established scholars discussing structures, ideas, agency, and activism, this book is a valuable plea to redeem ‘social justice’ in these bleak neoliberal conditions.” (Asef Bayat, author of “Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn” (2007), and “Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East” (2010))

“This is a rich and thoughtful collection, deftly edited and wonderfully argued. …The authors use their social and political positioning to theorize the interconnections between ‘the rentier nature of the country’ and topics such as workers collective action, the mobilizing capabilities of religion, co-operative economics, and economic liberalization. The collection is a coherent, thought-provoking, and committed work of scholarship and politics.” (Parin Dossa, author of “Afghanistan Remembers: Gendered Narrations of Violence and Culinary Practices” (2014))

“Is a richly diverse collection of essays that provides a broad and deep understanding of the economic, cultural, political, and social struggles that were transmuted and defeated in the making of the contemporary Iranian state … . The need and the potential for a new democratic Iranian left, grounded in popular movements, shine brightly in these well-researched, reflective essays.” (William K. Carroll, author of “Expose, Oppose, Propose: Alternative Policy Groups and the Struggle for Global Justice” (2016)) 

Peyman Vahabzadeh is Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Victoria, Canada. His recent books include A Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy and the Fadai Period of National Liberation in Iran, 1970-1979 (2010), Exilic Meditations: Essays on A Displaced Life (2013), and Parviz Sadri: A Political Biography (2015; in Persian).

Patrick Clawson, Michael Rubin — Eternal Iran. Continuity and Chaos (2005)

Paperback: 203 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 2005 edition (November 27, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1403962766
ISBN-13: 978-1403962768
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches

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Exploring continuities and changes, this book provides the historical backdrop crucial to understanding how Iranian pride and sense of victimization combine to make its politics contentious and potentially dangerous. From the struggle between the Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini to the current tension between the reformers and traditionalists, a central issue in Iranian domestic politics has long been its place in the world and relations with the West.

' Eternal Iran is a sophisticated and subtle book, a seamless narrative of Iranian history and contemporary politics. A book of careful scholarship, yet accessible to a wide readership. One of the best accounts of recent years on that important and problematic country.' - Fouad Ajami, Author of The Dream Palace of the Arabs

Patrick Clawson is Deputy Director of Research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and senior editor of Middle East Quarterly.

Negin Nabavi — Iran. From Theocracy to the Green Movement (2012)

Paperback: 191 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 2012 edition (September 18, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0230114695
ISBN-13: 978-0230114692
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9.3 inches

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Negin Nabavi brings together essays written by experts and scholars that shed light on the many transformations that Iran has experienced in the thirty years under the Islamic Republic and speculate on the import of the developments of 2009 and beyond.

"This outstanding book is an indispensable contribution to the study of contemporary Iran. It brings together a rich set of analytical and informative essays by leading authorities and covers a wide range of topics, from the significance of the Green Movement in terms of Iranian politics and society to the identity politics and culture of private business entrepreneurship in the Islamic Republic. Timely and thought-provoking, this multi-disciplinary volume on the dynamics of a culture and society undergoing change is essential reading for any serious inquiry into the contemporary Middle East." -Ahmad Ashraf, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University.

"This volume offers a wide range of in-depth studies on Iran's recent history. It will be of immediate interest to Iran specialists as well as those working on social implications of religious political movements in general." - Ali Gheissari, adjunct professor of History, University of San Diego.

FARIDEH FARHI Affiliate, Graduate Faculty of Political Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa FARIBA ADELKHAH Senior Research Fellow, Institut d'Études Politiques (Sciences Po) BABAK RAHIMI Assistant Professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies, University of California, San Diego RASMUS CHRISTIAN ELLING Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London KJETIL SELVIK Assistant Professor, University of Oslo; Researcher, Fafo Institute of Applied International Studies FATEMEH SADEGHI Independent scholar and Tehran-based researcher MARIE LADIER-FOULADI Social demographer and researcher, French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Centre on Population and Development (CEPED), University of Paris Descartes

Maria D. Wagenknecht — Constructing Identity in Iranian-American Self-Narrative (2015)

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 2015 edition (19 February 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1137479612
ISBN-13: 978-1137479617
Product Dimensions: 14 x 1.3 x 21.6 cm

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Shaped by the experiences of the Iranian Revolution, Iranian-American autobiographers use this chaotic past to tell their current stories in the United States. Wagenknecht analyzes a wide range of such writing and draws new conclusions about migration, exile, and life between different and often clashing cultures.

"This first comprehensive analysis of Iranian American autobiographical writing is insightful and richly nuanced. Laying bare the multiple contradictory impulses that inform an autobiography, Constructing Identity in Iranian-American Self-Narrative reveals how writing about the self is entangled in the complex workings of memory, self-positioning vis-à-vis a frequently over-determined past, and the performance of a new identity." - Nasrin Rahimieh, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, USA

"Wagenknecht offers a compelling and comprehensive study of Iranian-American memoirs, mining these works to carefully elaborate the construction of a new diasporic identity in the United States. Focusing on a broad set of issues, ranging from memory and nostalgia to ethnicity and racism, her study offers an illuminating exploration of how Iranian-Americans have been able to fashion through writing not only new selves but also new homes for themselves in an otherwise inhospitable environment." - Ali Behdad, John Charles Hillis Professor of Literature, University of California, Los Angeles, USA and the author of A Forgetful Nation: On Cultural Identity in the United States

"Wagenknecht has performed a great service in her fascinating exploration of Iranian identity. Explicating the cultural structures that form the context of interpretation of everyday life for Iranians, she goes far beyond the crude stereotypes of the Iranian people seen in Western media. She translates Iranian experience in all of its complexity and richness in a masterful narrative that inspires both admiration and a desire to know more about the richness of this great civilization. Even those who think they know Iran (or are themselves Iranian) will gain new insights from her book." - William O. Beeman, Professor of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, USA and the author of The 'Great Satan' vs. the 'Mad Mullahs': How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other

"Meticulously researched and elegantly written, this book convincingly argues that by narrating themselves as Iranian-Americans, autobiographers are claiming their right to self-determination in America's pluralistic society, which encompasses, however, the right to not fully Westernize oneself. This thought-provoking study suggests that it is high time to expand the canon of American literature to include Middle Eastern authors for both scholarly and political reasons." - Volker Depkat, Professor of American Studies, University of Regensburg, Germany

Maria Wagenknecht is an Independent Researcher, Germany.

Lawrence G. Potter, Gary G. Sick — Iran, Iraq, and the Legacies of War (2004)

Hardcover: 226 pages
Publisher: AIAA; 2004 edition (1 Nov. 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1403964505
ISBN-13: 978-1403964502
Product Dimensions: 15.6 x 1.4 x 23.4 cm

The organizing theme of this book is the impact of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War on the two states -- but since nothing in the Middle East is adequately explained in bilateral terms or without reference to the past, the chapters range further in time and space. Shaul Bakhash provides a fine overview of Iranian-Iraqi relations from 1930 to 1980. Richard Schofield studies the Shatt al Arab border dispute. M. R. Izady records the politics of Iraqi Kurds while fitting that story into the larger Kurdish arena beyond Iraq (with especially useful maps). Farideh Farhi appraises the impact of the brutal eight-year conflict on the "war generation" of Iran, and Faleh Jabar does the same for Iraq. Gerd Nonneman traces the shifting diplomacy of the Persian Gulf states during those years. Joost Hiltermann addresses the sad history and bleak consequences of international silence in the face of Iraqi use of chemical weapons, and Rosemary Hollis gives an overview of a half century of U.S. involvement with Iran and Iraq. All the authors have written extensively on their chosen subjects elsewhere, and the challenge of distilling their knowledge into succinct chapters here has been successfully met.

LAWRENCE G. POTTER is Deputy Director of Gulf/2000 and Adjunct Associate Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University, USA.

GARY G. SICK is the Executive Director of Gulf/2000 and Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, USA.

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Lawrence G. Potter — The Persian Gulf in History (2009)

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: AIAA; 2009 edition (1 Jan. 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403972451
• ISBN-13: 978-1403972453
• Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 2.2 x 22.9 cm

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Exploring the history of the Persian Gulf from ancient times until the present day, leading authorities treat the internal history of the region and describe the role outsiders have played there. The book focuses on the unity and identity of Gulf society and how the Gulf historically has been part of a cosmopolitan Indian Ocean world.

"The Persian Gulf in History is a very timely volume. . . It will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in a region whose strategic, political, economic, and financial importance has grown spectacularly in the last four decades. The book is well put together and extremely readable. It should be required for any university-level course on Gulf history and deserves to be on the bookshelf of any serious Gulf scholar." - Uzi Rabi, International Journal of Middle East Studies

"Together, the fifteen contributors provide a multilayered picture of the many historical processes that shaped the modern-day Gulf. The constancy of external power interventions and the cosmopolitan nature of an integrated south Asian-Indian Ocean community stand out from the analysis." - Middle East Policy

"This book provides a fresh, strikingly original and informative reexamination of the history of the Persian Gulf. It encourages us to see the Gulf not as a collection of disparate states but as a unit, with a unique and common culture based on extensive trade, fluid movement of peoples, and a tolerance for diversity. It will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in a region whose strategic, political, economic and financial importance has grown spectacularly in the last four decades." - Shaul Bakhash, Clarence Robinson Professor of History, George Mason University

"The Gulf countries, the keys to the security and economic future of the Middle East, receive meager attention, at best, in university studies. Few professors visit there, and those who visit but one or two countries inevitably come away with skewed impressions. Never has a general work on the history of a region been more sorely needed. And never has there been greater justification for presenting a history as a series of articles embodying various authorial viewpoints. Historical thinking about the Gulf as a whole is still in an embryonic stage, but this collection provides some of the insights that will help its speedy maturation." - Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History, Columbia University

"The Persian Gulf in History brings together a collection of essays of outstanding importance and quality, each written by a leading authority in the field. This volume represents a signal achievement in the study of the Gulf as a single unit of analysis, from its earliest history until recent times. It also illustrates in fine detail the multiple connections and entanglements between the Gulf and the outside world, whether it be the Indian Ocean or the European and American powers. The picture that emerges is complex, richly textured and marks a new standard in the scholarship on this exceptionally important, yet understudied, part of the world." - Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University

Kingshuk Chatterjee — ‘Ali Shari’ati and the Shaping of Political Islam in Iran (2011)

• Series: Middle East Today
• Hardcover: 277 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 2011 edition (May 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230113338
• ISBN-13: 978-0230113336
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.8 x 8.6 inches

This book tells the story of how Shari'ati developed a language of political Islam, speaking in an idiom intelligible to the Iranian public and subverting the Shah's regime and its claim to legitimacy.

Kingshuk Chatterjee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Calcutta University.

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