Soldiers, Shahs and Subalterns in Iran

In the presidential election of June 2009, the streets of Iran's cities were convulsed by massive street demonstrations, both supporting and opposing the incumbent, Mahmud Ahmadinejad. In this new book, Stephanie Cronin shows how, far from being a new or a modern phenomenon, such a repertoire of pub [...]
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In the presidential election of June 2009, the streets of Iran's cities were convulsed by massive street demonstrations, both supporting and opposing the incumbent, Mahmud Ahmadinejad. In this new book, Stephanie Cronin shows how, far from being a new or a modern phenomenon, such a repertoire of public protest is deeply embedded in an Iranian tradition of popular politics. Tracing the emergence of a variety of social movements in the 1920s and 30s, she shows how different subaltern groups, the urban 'crowd', the poor both in the cities and the rural areas, the new working class in the oil fields, the lower ranks of the army and politically dissident elements within the officer corps, constantly contested the agenda of the new state. As the 1979 revolution spectacularly confirmed, despite both the authoritarianism of Pahlavi Iran and the 'modernization' of the twentieth century, the beliefs and practices embedded in traditions of popular politics had refused to die, but had remained vividly alive in the collective memory of Iran's lower classes.