The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran

A 1978 CIA analysis firmly concluded that the shah of Iran would remain on the throne for the foreseeable future. One hundred days later the shah was overthrown by a popular revolution. The CIA was not alone in its myopia, as Kurzman reveals; Iranians themselves considered a revolution inconceivable until it actually occurred.

Table of Contents:
Preface vii 1 Introduction 1 2 The Emergence of Protest: Political Explanations 12 1977 3 Mobilization of the Mosque Network: Organizational Explanations 33 Early 1978 4 Shi'i Appeals: Cultural Explanations so Mid-1978 5 General Strike: Economic Explanations 77 Fall 1978 6 Failure of the Fist: Military Explanations 105 Winter 1978-1979 7 A Viable Movement: Anti-Explanation 125 Winter 1978-1979 8 Conclusion 163 About the Sources 175 Notes 187 References 239 Acknowledgments 281 Index 283

About the Author :
Charles Kurzman is Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Review :
Sociologist Kurzman addresses five familiar sets of explanations about why the Iranian revolution took place--political, organizational, cultural, economic, and military arguments--and finds each valuable but flawed, offering instead an 'anti-explanation' that foregrounds anomaly and characterizes the revolutionary moment as confusing, unstable, and as unpredictable for participants as it is for outside observers. Despite this, optimism is in order; there is, after all, exciting potential in moments in which the unthinkable suddenly becomes thinkable. -- Brendan Driscoll Booklist 20040215 When Elias Canetti, the Nobel-prize winning theorist, spoke of a people's 'propensity to incendiarism,' he had in mind one of the most dangerous traits of mass gatherings: their potential for unpredictable combustibility. Iran's Islamic revolution, like many other uprisings, was a consummate instance of this, Kurzman argues, and he continues in Canetti's tradition by using the Shah's overthrow to engage in his own meditation on crowds and power. Kurzman's investigation propelled him to the Islamic republic, where he conducted countless interviews, in an attempt to chart the eddies and undercurrents of one of the world's most complex and sudden social upheavals...The result is a thought-provoking combination of journalism and analysis that offers an atypical juxtaposition of voices: shopkeepers, lawyers and high school students share their views on what happened, as do academics and policymakers. Publishers Weekly 20040419 [Kurzman's] book examines the Islamic revolution in the light of social sciences. It is a valuable insight into what he considers one of the most far-reaching events of the 20th century. -- Shusha Guppy Times Higher Education Supplement 20041105 Charles Kurzman has presented a meticulous anatomy of the Iranian revolution and has dexterously treated the anomalies usually inherent in revolutions...The author shifts through revolution theories and shows with pages and pages of documentation and references how they related to the Iranian revolution or missed it. Kurzman's opus is certainly a valuable contribution to the historiography and sociological analysis of an important revolution of our age that led to a large scale politicization of Islam in those parts of the world where this religion prevailed. -- Syfi Tashan Journal of Third Word Studies Charles Kurzman has produced the definitive account of the Islamic Revolution. No serious historian can write about these events without consulting his 10-page essay on available source material in The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran. Middle East Quarterly 20070401