The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran [Paperback]

Distinguished historian Ali M. Ansari explores ideas about nationalism and how they apply to twentieth-century Iran.Distinguished historian Ali M. Ansari explores ideas about nationalism that emerged in post-Enlightenment Europe and applies them to a non-European state. Charting a course through twentieth-century Iran, he analyzes the impact of these ideas on different regimes and their historiographical and political connections. He concludes that revolutionary developments in the early twentieth century paved the way for later radicalization.Distinguished historian Ali M. Ansari explores ideas about nationalism that emerged in post-Enlightenment Europe and applies them to a non-European state. Charting a course through twentieth-century Iran, he analyzes the impact of these ideas on different regimes and their historiographical and political connections. He concludes that revolutionary developments in the early twentieth century paved the way for later radicalization.This sophisticated and challenging book by the distinguished historian Ali M. Ansari explores the idea of nationalism in the creation of modern Iran. It does so by considering the broader developments in national ideologies that took place following the emergence of the European Enlightenment and showing how these ideas were adopted by a non-European state. Ansari charts a course through twentieth-century Iran, analyzing the growth of nationalistic ideas and their impact on the state and demonstrating the connections between historiographical and political developments. In so doing, he shows how Iran's different regimes manipulated ideologies of nationalism and collective historical memory to suit their own ends. Firmly relocating Reza Shah within the context of the Constitutional Revolution, Ansari argues that Reza Pahlavi's identification with a monarchy by Divine Right bore a greater resemblance to, and facilitated, the religious nationalism that catapulted Ayatollah Khomeini to power on the back olãL