A History of Modern Iran

Abstract

In a reappraisal of Iran's modern history, Ervand Abrahamian traces its traumatic journey across the twentieth century, through the discovery of oil, imperial interventions, the rule of the Pahlavis and, in 1979, revolution and the birth of the Islamic Republic. In the intervening years, the country has experienced a bitter war with Iraq, the transformation of society under the clergy and, more recently, the expansion of the state and the struggle for power between the old elites, the intelligentsia and the commercial middle class. The author is a compassionate expositor. While he adroitly negotiates the twists and turns of the country's regional and international politics, at the heart of his book are the people of Iran. It is to them and their resilience that this book is dedicated, as Iran emerges at the beginning of the twenty-first century as one of the most powerful states in the Middle East.

Earthquake Culture: A Significant Element in Earthquake Disaster Risk Assessment and Earthquake Disaster Risk Management

“…Strong politics and geopolitics in Iran and in the Middle East, complex and dynamic power structures in Persia/Iran, and dramatic history of Persia/Iran [30,[35][36][37][38][39] have contributed during the time and still contributes nowadays to the erosion of an earthquake culture in Iran. The earthquake culture has not been seen as a top priority in Persia/Iran over more than a century time-period (1909-2014).…”

“…Reasons for this situation were linked to the fact, that for almost a period of 50 years, from 1908 till late 1953, Iran received very low level of royalties from the foreign oil company which operated and controlled all oil operations in Iran; more precisely, from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) and later, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) with a majority of shares After the 1953 coup, the oil concession in Iran was given to a consortium of major international companies which gained full control over production, refining, management and distribution of oil; 40% of shares went to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company which was renamed British Petroleum (BP) and 40% went to a group of American companies. This consortium was supposed to give 50% of profits to Iran and this was the type of agreement signed by USA and Britain with other countries in Middle East at that time [35].…”

“…A high dependency on oil revenues, the complexity of the political landscape in Iran and a very reduced transparency has negatively affected the accountability of state, governmental institutions and other many organizations in Iran and negatively impacted the economy of Iran [35,42,43].The accountability toward the earthquake disaster risk reduction in Iran was also negatively impacted. Over more than a century time-period (1909-2014), despite some registered progress, the rhythm of socio-cultural learning from earthquake disasters is slow in Iran and an earthquake culture is yet pending to be developed.…”

Investigating the Oil Effect on the Politicking in the 19th August, 1953 Coup d'État

“…To increase his own reliability, Roosevelt met with Churchill in the direction of his own mission and received full support from him. Prior to leaving Washington he was given some intelligence about Mosadegh including " he is an old villager man with some illusions responsibility and reality; someone who have prejudices about all the problems from his sensational point of view" [6]. Thereafter, the CIA was authorized to plan for the Coup and after a while, a million dollar was granted to the CIA basis in Tehran to spend it for the subversion of Mosadegh.…”

Political Development Concept by Looking Briefly at the Iran’s Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Rule

“…Actually in the late 1940s both the Shah and the "National Front" under Mosaddiq's leadership struggled for the nationalist mantle. In this competition, Huntington (1968) quoted, "the Shah not only opposed Russian designs on his country but also to assent to Iranian national interest against the Anglo-Iranian oil company and to develop his doctrine of "Positive Nationalism" against the "Negative Nationalism" of Mosaddiq" (Lenczowski 1972, Abrahamian 1982, Bashiriyeh 2001, Abrahamian 2008). …”