Book Review: The Age of Aryamehr: Late Pahlavi Iran and Its Global Entanglements

 The Shah of Iran regime is generally evaluated and judged through overcritical lenses. The most frequent - and in most of the cases justified - references are to the deep corruption of his regime, the abuses against human rights and religious freedom and the lack of democracy. However, the job of an academic researcher is to outline the mentality patterns and directions which, when using the right neutral theoretical matrix, may reveal new and interesting aspects.

The Age of Aryamehr. Late Pahlavi Iran and Its Global Entanglements edited by Roham Alvandi is an outstanding collection of essays covering a big variety of topics related to the late years of the Pahlavi regime. Some of them are relatively well known, such as the Shiraz Festival of Arts or the 1971 Persepolis Celebrations, but what in my opinion stands up is the divergence of all the studies towards identifying global trends and the move towards a different political and geopolitical identity for Iran.

What for my own interests was equally relevant were the articles and points dedicated to intellectual history, specifically of the European left and it´s misreading of the Islamic revolution (the article by Claudia Castiglioni). The intellectual West was unable ´to fully capture the meaning and the possible implications of the Iranian revolution´. ´Universal in scope, but with a strong national connotation, anti-communist, despite the global emphasis placed on social justice, fought under the banner of religion despite the professed secularism of many among its protagonists, the Iranian revolution presented a conundrum for intellectuals, especially those of leftist orientation´. 

The ways in which the political representatives of the late Shah tried to use culture as an efficient tool of soft power was more than an abusive way of self-embelishment of the Shah - which at a certain extent it was - but a powerful statement trying to reposition Iran on the global trends, particularly during the complexities of the Cold War. From the mid-1960s, the Shah tried to create his own pattern of political alliances, playing the global card with the big players of the bi-polar blocks. He tried to integrate the cultural assumptions of a Great Civilisation - tammadon-e bozorg - into a larger geopolitical narrative. 

However, no matter what, he lost all his local cards and he was not the only one who was taken away by the debacle. 

This book is an example of quality intellectual discourse on topics that in most cases ignite ´for´ and ´against´ mindset. It shows how much the academic research and advancement of thoughts may win when the research is driven exclusively by intellectual curiosity and desire to find the truth.

Rating: 4 stars