State and Society in Iran: The Eclipse of the Qajars and the Emergence of the Pahlavis: v. 28 (Library of Modern Middle East Studies) - Softcover

"I always recommend this book to second and final year students and postgraduates, who find it a very useful study for a defining moment in twentieth century Iranian history." John Gurney, Wadham College, Oxford "This is a key text for the late Qajar/early Pahlavi period and essential reading for students looking at modern Itan in any real depth." Dr. Stephanie Cronin, SOAS "In State and Society in Iran Homa Katouzian provides the most comprehensive version of the theory or arbitrary rule in Iran so far. Using this as his basis for a detailed analysis of the chaotic events from the end of the 19th century to late 1941, this vital new study gives insight into the country's present situation and the alternative prospects for its future." The Middle East"

Homa Katouzian offers a groundbreaking theoretical framework for the study of Modern Iranian history. In the model, he proposes, Katouzian identifies a cycle of arbitrary rule leading to chaos, resulting in a further period of arbitrary rule, degenerating once more into chaos, and so on. The ebb and flow between the despotism of Naser al-din Shah, the confusion and turmoil of the Constitutional Revolution and the late Qajar period, the tough one-man-rule of Reza Shah, the ramshackle democracy and vacuum following World War II, the centralism of Mohammed Reza Shah underpinned by SAVAK, the brief flowering of democracy around the Islamic Revolution, only to culminate in the stern arbitrariness of rule guided by the hubris of an Islamic leader (first Khomeini then Khamene'i) - all bear out the author's thesis with uncanny accuracy. "State and Society in Iran" is crucial reading not only for those interested in the history of modern Iran but also for all students of political science concerned with the developing world.