Quote:
Originally Posted by Shek
Alamgir,
I'm looking at modern history to learn more about the seeming dichotomy of the regime and the people. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Unfortunately i cant recommend any particular books however you might want to look a bit into the later stages of Qajar rule as a starting point for modern Iranian history. This was the period during which the concept of Iranian nationalism in a political sense began to develop. From the late Qajar period onwards Iran began to break with its ancient/traditional political culture and began to develop some sort of sense of itself as a 'nation state'. In particular the erosion of an autocracy. It was also during this period that anti-foreign sentiments began to develop among urban and commercial groups. There was much Russian and British interference in Iran during that time and many considered the Qajar's as "selling out" Iran's sovereignty to foreigners. It was under the Qaja's that modern Iran's territorial boundaries (as they exist today) took shape and exposure to new political thinking occurred. You may find reading a bit about Iran's constitutional revolution in the early 20th century worthwhile for more on this. You can see from this period the beginnings of anti-foreign sentiments among politically active Iranians that you could argue are linked with such feelings all the way upto the revolution and beyond (being added to of course further by the American relationship with the Pahlavis).
In any case i dont think just reading about post-Islamic revolution Iran will give you a full insight into understanding Iranian political culture and its attitudes towards the Western world if that is what you are looking for. There may be alot of discontent with the Islamic regime from within Iran but i think if you study some earlier history you will realize that Iranians will ultimately reject any foreign attempt to change Iran's government, despite whatever they may think of the present government and will probably harden behind it.
Id discuss with you more but im probably much like you in that i like to read first and debate later. And i also have alot to read on for myself before i can enter any meaningful debate on this topic. Whatever i know is the basics and not having lived in Iran myself i choose to refrain from 'talking on behalf' of those that live there and what they think of the regime.
Well, happy reading.