Modern Iran since 1921

Contemporary Review, June, 2004

Modern Iran since 1921: The Pahlavis and After. Ali M. Ansari. Pearson Longman. [pounds sterling]16.99 p.b. xiii 272 pages. ISBN 0-582-35685-7. The author of this history teaches in the University of Durham and argues that 'few countries have proved so persistently incomprehensible to Western analyses as Iran'.

His history seeks to dispel the mists surrounding our understanding of Iran. Two events dominate the period under survey: the revolution of 1921-1925, which created the Pahlavi dynasty, and the revolution of 1979 which destroyed it and brought in the rule of the Ayatollah. Mr Ansari traces the 'development and identity of an Iranian state' as Iranians came to terms with Western modernity. This is therefore a 'book about change and the politics of managing that change ... from a perception of tradition to a particular conception of modernity'. Whilst this process began with the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 it really affected Iranians in the person of Westernising rulers of the Pahlavi dynasty. Despite the rule of the 'clerics' the Iranian state remains that created by the dynasty. Mr Ansari gives readers a balanced, well researched basis from which to understand the history of Iran during the last 83 years and the contradictions involved in that history.