Who is knowledgeable, is strong : science, class, and the formation of modern Iranian society, 1900-1950

In Who Is Knowledgeable Is Strong, Cyrus Schayegh tells two intertwined stories: how, in early twentieth-century Iran, an emerging middle class used modern scientific knowledge as its cultural and economic capital, and how, along with the state, it employed biomedical sciences to tackle presumably modern problems like the increasing stress of everyday life, people's defective willpower, and demographic stagnation. The book examines the ways by which scientific knowledge allowed the Iranian modernists to socially differentiate themselves from society at large and, at the very same time, to intervene in it. In so doing, it argues that both class formation and social reform emerged at the interstices of local Iranian and Western-dominated global contexts and concerns. "A singular scholarly achievement and a valuable contribution to modern Iranian and Middle Eastern history. Schayegh's research promises to fuel ongoing debates concerning modernity and nationalism in Iran and elsewhere."―Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, author of Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804-1946 "The author has accomplished the most thorough work of research that I am familiar with in the field of 20th century Iranian history."―H. E. Chehabi, Boston University "A fascinating study of Iranian doctors and scientists and the ways they forged a distinctive route to modernity. This book is rich with insights for the present."―Lynn Hunt, University of California, Los Angeles

In Who Is Knowledgeable Is Strong, Cyrus Schayegh tells two intertwined stories: how, in early twentieth-century Iran, an emerging middle class used modern scientific knowledge as its cultural and economic capital, and how, along with the state, it employed biomedical sciences to tackle presumably modern problems like the increasing stress of everyday life, people's defective willpower, and demographic stagnation. The book examines the ways by which scientific knowledge allowed the Iranian modernists to socially differentiate themselves from society at large and, at the very same time, to intervene in it.
In so doing, it argues that both class formation and social reform emerged at the interstices of local Iranian and Western-dominated global contexts and concerns.

Introduction Part I : Science and the formation of the Iranian modern middle class, 1900s/1940s Historical frames : the nineteenth century and the post revolutionary advance of modern science, 1900/1920 Cultural and discursive dimensions The economic dimension Part II : Medicalizing modernity : patterns of interaction between bio-medical sciences and modernity in Iran, 1900 Dangers of modernity : neurology, psychiatry, and the effects of modern technology and economy Bio-power : hygiene, eugenics, genetics, and Iran's double demographic problem The self-reliant personality : psychology, pedagogy, and the problem of personal and national willpower Conclusion.