This book examines the role of Iranian intellectuals in the history of Iranian modernity. It traces the contributions of intellectuals in the construction of national identity and the Iranian democratic debate, analyzing how intellectuals balanced indebtedness to the West with the issue of national identity in Iran. Recognizing how intellectual elites became beholden to political powers, the contributors demonstrate the trend that intellectuals often opted for cultural dissent rather than ideological politics.
Ramin Jahanbegloo is executive director of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Nonviolence and Peace Studies and vice-dean of the School of Law at Jindal Global University.
Part I: Iranian Intellectuals,Nationalism and State: from Qajar to Early Pahlavi Chapter 1: Amir Kabir: A Reformist and Pioneer of Modernization in the Traditional State Chapter 2: Crafitng Iranian National Imaginary:The Interwar Period (1918-1935) Chapter 3: British Whiggism and the Iranian Enlightenment in the 19th Century Partt II: Iranian Intellectuals:Between Traditional Values and Modern State Chapter 4: Third-Worldist Iranian intellectuals: Shariati and Ale-Ahmad Chapter 5: Sadeq Hedayat: Iranian Fiction and the Experience of Modernity Chapter 6: Rethinking the Legacy of Intellectual-Statesmen in Iran Part III: Women Intellectuals in Pre-and Post-Revolutionary Iran Chapter 7: Women's rights in Iran's experiment with modernity Chapter 8: "And, here I am," Forugh Farrokhzad and Modernity Chapter 9: Simin Daneshvar: The Forging of an Intellectual Part IV: Iranian Left: From Marxist Intellectualism to Revolutionary Romanticism Chapter 10: The perplexity of the Iranian Marxist Intellectuals in this 1960s and 1970s Chapter 11: Intellectual Statesmen and the Making of Iran's Illiberal Nation-State(1921-1926)
"Mapping the Role of Intellectuals in Iranian Modern and Contemporary History is the most comprehensive and detailed history of intellectuals and their struggle in Iran for the past three centuries. What makes this book stand out from previous works is that it represents diverse voices from a broad political and ideological spectrum. Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo must be congratulated for this very important book on country which eludes the West (or on a country whose world-view is little understood)."--Touraj Daryaee, University of California, Irvine Iran's encounter with modernity has produced a variety of responses from Iranian intellectuals. Like other countries in the Middle East, these thinkers sought to balance the need for cultural change and adaptation with the need to maintain and construct an authentic national identity. This volume brings together several of the most distinguished Iranian Studies scholars to interpret and analyze this topic. Brilliantly edited by Ramin Jahanbegloo, these chapters are an invaluable contribution to the field of Iranian and Middle East studies. A must-read book that no serious student of Iranian intellectuals and Iran's troubled engagement with modernity can afford to miss.--Nader Hashemi, University of Denver
