Both Eastern and Western

Afshin Matin-Asgari is Outstanding Professor of Middle East History at California State University, Los Angeles. He was born in Iran and completed his Ph.D. in Middle East history at University of California, Los Angeles. He was active in the international movement of Iranian students during the 1970s and took part in the 1978–79 Iranian Revolution. He is the author of Iranian Student Opposition to the Shah (2002), which is translated in Persian and published in Iran, and has authored more than twenty articles and book chapters on twentieth-century Iranian political and intellectual history.

'This unique book registers the many sources of influence, hitherto overlooked by the researchers in the field, that have shaped up modern Iran. Afshin Matin-asgari offers a meticulous and compelling account of the cosmopolitan character of modern Iranian intellectual, social, cultural, and political thought. A superb and authoritative reference for scholars and public alike.' Peyman Vahabzadeh, University of Victoria

• Introduction: intellectual constructions of Iranian modernity; 1. Lineages of authoritarian modernity: the Russo-Ottoman model; 2. The Berlin Circle: crafting the worldview of Iranian nationalism; 3. Subverting constitutionalism: intellectuals as instruments of modern dictatorship; 4. Intellectual missing links: politicizing religion and translating modernity; 5. The mid-century moment of socialist hegemony; 6. Revolutionary monarchy, political Shi'ism, and Islamic Marxism; 7. Conclusion: aborted resurrection: an intellectual arena wide open to opposition.