Days of revolution : political unrest in an Iranian village / Mary Elaine Hegland.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hegland, Mary Elaine.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Villages--Iran--Case studies.

Villages.

Political culture--Iran.

Political culture.

Iran--History--Revolution, 1979.

Iran.

Iran--Politics and government--1979-1997.

Iran--Politics and government--1997-.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (353 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Outside of Shiraz in the Fars Province of southwestern Iran lies "Aliabad." Mary Hegland arrived in this then-small agricultural village of several thousand people in the summer of 1978, unaware of the momentous changes that would sweep this town and this country in the months ahead. She became the only American researcher to witness the Islamic Revolution firsthand over her eighteen-month stay. Days of Revolution offers an insider's view of how regular people were drawn into, experienced, and influenced the 1979 Revolution and its aftermath. Conventional wisdom assumes Shi'a religious ideology fueled the revolutionary movement. But Hegland counters that the Revolution spread through much more pragmatic concerns: growing inequality, lack of development and employment opportunities, government corruption. Local expectations of leaders and the political process—expectations developed from their experience with traditional kinship-based factions—guided local villagers' attitudes and decision-making, and they often adopted the religious justifications for Revolution only after joining the uprising. Sharing stories of conflict and revolution alongside in-depth interviews, the book sheds new light on this critical historical moment. Returning to Aliabad decades later, Days of Revolution closes with a view of the village and revolution thirty years on. Over the course of several visits between 2003 and 2008, Mary Hegland investigates the lasting effects of the Revolution on the local political factions and in individual lives. As Iran remains front-page news, this intimate look at the country's recent history and its people has never been more timely or critical for understanding the critical interplay of local and global politics in Iran.

Contents:

Historical Aliabad

Political repression : the Mosaddeq era

Economic transformation and political space

Recruitment to revolution

The final months

After the revolution : the local uprising

Aliabad : thirty-four years later.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780804788854

0804788855

OCLC:

861538210