The Political Economy of Modern Iran [electronic resource] : Despotism and Pseudo-Modernism, 1926-1979

Visit the Unspun website which includes Table of Contents and the Introduction. The World Wide Web has cut a wide path through our daily lives. As claims of "the Web changes everything" suffuse print media, television, movies, and even presidential campaign speeches, just how thoroughly do the users immersed in this new technology understand it? What, exactly, is the Web changing? And how might we participate in or even direct Web-related change? Intended for readers new to studying the Internet, each chapter in Unspun addresses a different aspect of the "web revolution"--hypertext, multimedia, authorship, community, governance, identity, gender, race, cyberspace, political economy, and ideology--as it shapes and is shaped by economic, political, social, and cultural forces. The contributors particularly focus on the language of the Web, exploring concepts that are still emerging and therefore unstable and in flux. Unspun demonstrates how the tacit assumptions behind this rhetoric must be examined if we want to really know what we are saying when we talk about the Web. Unspun will help readers more fully understand and become critically aware of the issues involved in living, as we do, in a wired society. Contributors include: Jay Bolter, Sean Cubitt, Jodi Dean, Dawn Dietrich, Cynthia Fuchs, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Timothy Luke, Vincent Mosco, Lisa Nakamura, Russell Potter, Rob Shields, John Sloop, and Joseph Tabbi. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-4 Front Matter....Pages 5-5 On the Mode of Production: Feudalism or Despotism?....Pages 7-26 Developments in the Nineteenth Century....Pages 27-52 Mashrūṭeh and after: Revolution and Depression, 1900-18....Pages 53-71 Front Matter....Pages 73-73 From Reżā Khān to Reżā Shah: Preludes to the Despotic Counter‐Revolution, 1918–26....Pages 75-100 The Triumph of Pseudo‐Modernist Absolutism, 1926-33....Pages 101-121 The Rise and Fall of Pseudo-Modernist Despotism, 1933-41....Pages 122-137 Front Matter....Pages 139-139 Occupation and Interregnum, 1941-51....Pages 141-163 The Popular Movement of Iran: Oil Nationalisation and Dual Sovereignty, 1951-3....Pages 164-187 Political Dictatorship and Economic ‘Liberalism’, 1953-61....Pages 188-210 Front Matter....Pages 211-211 Economic Crisis, Political Instability and Power Struggles, 1961-3: Preludes to Petrolic Despotism....Pages 213-233 Petrolic Despotism (1): Oil and the Political Economy....Pages 234-254 Petrolic Despotism (2): the Quantity and Quality of Economic Change....Pages 255-273 Urbanism, Industry and Services....Pages 274-294 The Rural Society: Land Reform and the Plight of Agriculture....Pages 295-312 Foreign Trade and Relations....Pages 313-331 The People’s Revolution, 1977-9....Pages 332-353 Results and Prospects: Whither Iran?....Pages 354-373 Back Matter....Pages 375-389