Lexington Books
Pages: 374
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7391-7944-4 • Hardback • August 2013 • $146.00 • (£112.00)
978-0-7391-8639-8 • Paperback • March 2015 • $56.99 • (£44.00)
978-0-7391-7945-1 • eBook • August 2013 • $54.00 • (£42.00)
Majid Sharifi is assistant professor in international affairs and government at Eastern Washington University. He has done extensive field research in the political development of Iran and surrounding countries. His research focuses on political and security trends and transformations in the littoral states of Persian Gulf, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Preface
Chapter 1: Contested Iranianness
Chapter 2: The Emergence of Modern Iranian Nationalism
Chapter 3: Subaltern Developmentalism: Reza Shah's Reign (1921-1941)
Chapter 4: Imperial Interventions (1941 and 1953)
Chapter 5: Formation of a Hegemonic National Opposition (1953-1978)
Chapter 6: The Islamic Republic: The Creation of an Islamic Iranian Subject
Chapter 7: Consolidation of the State Power but Crisis in National Identity
Chapter 8: Islamic Nationalism Redefined
Chapter 9: Official Nationalism in Practice: Seduction of Othering
Conclusion
This expansive book seeks to explain why different Iranian regimes that came to power after the 1905-06 constitutional revolution have unsuccessfully sought to define 'Iranianness.' Sharifi explains the political dynamics of the rise and fall of each regime in terms of the inability of each type of government, whether secularist or Islamic, to make its narrative of 'Iranianness' inclusive enough to make the state into the embodiment of the country's heterogeneous people. He further demonstrates that the failure to politically and socially engage the elites and masses around the state's official identity have had several consequences. They included securitization of Iran's sociopolitical space, various regimes' increasing reliance on coercive and regulatory mechanisms to stay in power, and the emergence of counterhegemonic forces against the state's official identity and ideology of 'Iranianness.' Moreover, the author develops a theoretical framework for connecting the development of Iranian nationalism with those of the other states in the Middle East and South Asia that have experienced colonial and/or imperial domination. This well-researched, theoretically rigorous, and cogently argued book is highly recommended. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.
— Choice Reviews