Fall of the Peacock Throne

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Mehrzad Boroujerdi

Mehrzad Boroujerdi challenges the way many Americans perceive present-day Iran as well as how Iranians view the West. He examines the works of thinkers seminal in defining modern Iran (virtually unknown in the U.S.) and concludes the Islam was not the primary source of their inspiration. Their efforts to forge an "authentic" national identity lay at the heart of Iranian thought. These intellectuals (both religious and secular) appropriated Islam as the vehicle through which they could most effectively challenge or accommodate modernity and Westernization. Through such a fitting appropriation, Boroujerdi asserts, could modern Iranian thinkers lay the foundation for a nativist vision of an unsullied culture, seemingly free of Western influence. . Drawing on the works of Michel Foucault and Edward Said, this book explores how Iranians use their own misunderstandings about the West to form their own identity and, in return, how Westerners describe Iran in negative terms to help them reaffirm the superiority of their own culture. Boroujerdi also argues that Iranian intellectuals have been deeply indebted to Western thought, which has served as the cultural reference through which they continue to struggle with issues of identity and selfhood.

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Howard Andrew Jones

When a stranger begs the vizier of ninth-century Baghdad to protect a bejeweled tablet and is murdered before he can explain, the scholar Dabir pursues suspicions that the subsequently stolen tablet may unlock secrets to the lost city of Ubar.

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Mehri Honarbin-Holliday

"The state of women in Islamic societies is the subject of much interest and heated debate. Yet, these discussions and representations in the media and elsewhere rely on inadequate information and misperceptions, imagining Muslim women as oppressed victims in need of liberation by outside forces. Becoming Visible in Iran disputes these widespread stereotypes, providing a vivid account of women in contemporary Iran as they go about their daily lives. Mehri Honarbin-Holliday presents the experiences of these women who wield a key if indirect political influence on the seemingly male dominated politics of this society, as they achieve a new visibility." "Highlighting links and continuities with the history of women in Iran, from the early twentieth century to the present moment, Honarbin-Holliday shows how Iranian women today strive: to be the author of one's fate, to resist narrow interpretations of religion, to conduct meaningful, rich and complex lives, to bring about change in the mindsets of male relatives, and to contribute to legal and political debates in the country." "For its direct presentation of women's voices as well as its analysis and insight, this book is a vital contribution to our understanding of the lives of Muslim women and the possibilities before them today. Becoming Visible in Iran is indispensable for those concerned with women in Islamic societies, gender studies, sociology, anthropology as well as Iran and the Middle East."--BOOK JACKET.

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Geoffrey Blainey

'Black kettle and full moon' is a guided tour of vanished Australia. It covers the years from the first gold rush to World War 1. Blainey paints a fascinating picture of how our forebears lived and looks at aspects of social life.