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Historiography of the Iranian Revolutionary Movement, 1977–79

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Charles Kurzman
Charles Kurzman*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Georgia State University
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Extract

More than Fifty Books, and More than 100 Academic Articles, Have appeared in English alone dealing in significant part with the Iranian revolutionary movement. This impressive output, published in just 15 years, does not reflect a similarly copious wealth of source materials. In fact, the study of the Iranian revolutionary movement is largely, one might argue, sound and fury, a lot of grand theorizing lacking a solid empirical basis. No work on the Iranian revolution has made systematic use of all forms of primary evidence that are currently available, though some are more thorough than others.

This paper discusses Western historiography of the Iranian revolutionary movement of 1977–79, which led to the fall of the Pahlavi regime in February 1979. It does not attempt to cover works on the post-revolutionary period, after the fall of the shah. In addition, it does not deal specifically with individual secondary works on the Iranian revolution.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1-2 , Spring Winter 1995 , pp. 25 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1995

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Hamid Algar, Abbas Amanat, Shaul Bakhash, and participants at the 1994 conference of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

References

1. Unfortunately, historiography in Iran suffers from a similar lack of empirical rigor, especially in the study of the 20th century. See Abbas, , “The Study of History in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Nostalgia, Illusion, or Historical Awareness?” Iranian Studies 22, no. 4 (1991): 3–18Google Scholar.

2. “Western” is intended to include Iranian expatriates who operate in Western academic settings.

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11. National Security Archives, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–1980, microfiche collection, index, and guide (Alexandria, Va.: Chadwyck-Healey, 1989).

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18. Davani, ‘Ali, Nahżat-i rūḥdnīyūn-i Īrān, 10 vols. (Tehran: Bunyad-i Farhang-i Imam Riza, 1360 Sh./1981)Google Scholar; Behn, Iranian Opposition to the Shah.

19. Żamīmah-yi khabarnāmah, no. 13 (Farvardin 1357/March-April 1978): 15–23.

20. Darbārah-yi qiyām, 39–58; Asnād va taṣāvīrī az mubārizāt-i khalq-i musalmā-i Īrān (Tehran: Abu Zarr, 1978), 1:26–32, reproduced in Behn, Iranian Opposition to the Shah, doc. 10:3.

21. Gulabdarah'i, Mahmud, Laḥżahhā, 3rd printing (Tehran: Intisharat-i Kayhan, 1365 Sh./1986), 21Google Scholar.

22. Ahanchiyan, Jalal, Ṭarḥ-i suqūṭ-i yak pādishāh (Mill Valley, Calif.: self-published, 1982), 370–85Google Scholar.

23. Semkus, Charles I., The Fall of Iran, 1978–1979, 2 vols. (New York: Copen Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

24. Shahīd Duktur Bāhunar, ulgū-yi hunar-i muqāvamat, vol. 1 (Tehran: Vahid-i Farhangi-yi Bunyad-i Shahid-i Inqilab-i Islami, 1361 Sh./1982); Farzand-i Islām va Qur'ān, 2 vols. (Tehran: Vahid-i Farhangi-yi Bunyad-i Shahid, 1362 Sh./l983); Izadi, Mustafa, Guzarī bar zindagī-yi faqīh-i ‘ālīqadr āyat Allāh Muntaẓirī (Tehran: Surush, 1362 Sh./1983)Google Scholar.

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30. The methodology for this study is discussed further in Kurzman, Charles, “Structure and Agency in the Iranian Revolution, 1977–1979” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1992)Google Scholar.

31. Abrahamian, Ervand, The Iranian Mojahedin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

32. Radjavi, Kazem, La Révolution iranienne et les moudjahedines (Paris: Éditions Anthropos, 1983)Google Scholar. See also Khalq, Mujahidin-i, Barrasī-yi muhimmtarīn taḥavvulāt-i siyāsī: az nīmah-yi khurdād ‘57 tā nakhustvazīrī-yi Bakhtīyār (n.p.: Sazman-i Mujahidin-i Khalq-i Iran, 1979)Google Scholar.

33. Untitled pronouncement of 9 Mihr 1357/1 October 1978, in the collection of the Centre Iranien de Documentation et des Recherches, Paris.

34. See Iṭṭilā'āt, 10 February 1979.

35. Iṭṭilā'āt, 10 and 11 February 1979; Āyandigan, 11 February 1979.

36. See, for instance, Barahani, Riza, Dar inqilāb-i Īrān, chih shudah va chih wāhad shud? (Tehran: Nashr-i Zaman, 1358 Sh./1979), 123Google Scholar; Gulabdarah'i, Laḥẓihhā, 327–8Google Scholar; and newspaper accounts.

37. Kurzman, Charles, “Disillusionment and Structuralism in the Study of Social Protest” (forthcoming)Google Scholar.