Nationalism in Iran: Updated Through 1978

by Richard W. Cottam

For a brief period in the early 1950s, Iranian nationalism captured the world's attention as, under the leadership of Mohammad Mossadeq, the Iranian National Movement tried to liberate Iran from British imperialism. Regarding nationalism as a major determinant of the attitudes and loyalties of those who embrace it, Cottam analyzes the complex religious, national, and social values at work within Iran and examines, more generally, the turbulence of nationalism in developing states and its perplexing problems for American foreign policy.

In a new 40-page chapter, added in 1978, Cottam updated his pioneering study by examining the condition of Iran fifteen years after his first analysis-from its rapid economic growth as an oil producer to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's unsuccessful efforts to rouse nationalistic sentiment in his favor.

Genres: Iran

384 pages, Paperback

Published June 15, 1979

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cottam, an American professor at Pittsburg Univ. has been working in American Embassy in Tehran (1957-1959). I picked up the book because of curiosity, but now, am amazed by so much facts Cottam has about Iranian society and culture, though I'm not agree with him in very many aspects, but I'm glad that I read his ideas about Nationalism in Iran. Although Cottam tries to avoid analyzing Iranian society with Western terminologies, as many other Westerners do, but still there are facts in his work which look a bit abstract in connection to Iran modern history...
نیمه ی دوم کتاب، قابل قبول تر از نیمه ی اول بنظر می رسد. با این همه بنظر می آید ریچارد کاتم به دلیل سال ها اقامت و ماموریت در ایران، خواسته چیزی در مورد این سرزمین که این سال ها این همه مطلب در جهان آفریده، گفته باشد. به گمان من در کارهای چند تن از نویسندگان ایرانی نظیر عبدالحسین زرین کوب و فریدون آدمیت، به مساله ی ناسیونالیسم در ایران، بسیار بهتر و واضح تر و بدون تعارف و مجامله اشاره شده که خواندن آثارشان را لذت بخش تر از کار آقای کاتم می کند. ناسیونالیسم در ایران اثر ریچارد کاتم توسط احمد تدین به فارسی برگردانده شده و در 1371 توسط انتشارات توس منتشر شده است.