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A social history of modern Iran 'from below' focused on subaltern groups and contextualised by developments within Middle Eastern and global history.
Even though the left has never held power in Iran, its impact on the political, intellectual and cultural development of modern Iran has been profound. This book's authors undertake a fundamental re-examination and re-appraisal of the phenomenon of leftist activism in Iran, interpreted in the broadest sense, throughout the period of its existence up to and including the present.
This collection of essays, by a distinguished group of specialists, offers a new and exciting interpretation of Riza Shah's Iran. A period of key importance, the years between 1921-1941 have, until now, remained relatively neglected. Recently, however, there has been a marked revival of interest in the history of these two decades and this collection brings together some of the best of this recent new scholarship. Illustrating the diversity and complexity of interpretations to which contemporary scholarship has given rise, the collection looks at both the high politics of the new state and at 'history from below', examining some of the fierce controversies which have arisen surrounding such issues as the gender politics of the new regime, the nature of its nationalism, and its treatment of minorities.
The 1948 Palestine War is known to Israelis as 'the War of Independence'. But for Palestinians, the war is forever the Nakba, the 'catastrophe'. The war led to the creation of the State of Israel and the destruction of much of Palestininan society by the Zionist forces. For all Palestinians, the Nakba has become central to history, memory and identity. This book focuses on Palestinian internal refugees in Israel and internally displaced Palestinians across the Green LIne. It uses oral history and interviews to examine Palestinian identity and memory, indigenous rights, international protection, the 'right of return', and a just solution in Palestine/Israel. Contributors include several distinguished authors and scholars such as William Dalrymple, Prof. Naseer Aruri, Dr. Ilan Pappe, Prof. Isma'il Abu Sa'ad and Dr. Nur Masalha.
2012 marks the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba - the most traumatic catastrophe that ever befell Palestinians. This book explores new ways of remembering and commemorating the Nakba. In the context of Palestinian oral history, it explores 'social history from below', subaltern narratives of memory and the formation of collective identity. Masalha argues that to write more truthfully about the Nakba is not just to practise a professional historiography but an ethical imperative. The struggles of ordinary refugees to recover and publicly assert the truth about the Nakba is a vital way of protecting their rights and keeping the hope for peace with justice alive. This book is essential for understanding the place of the Palestine Nakba at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the vital role of memory in narratives of truth and reconciliation.
Throughout the history of European imperialism the grand narratives of the Bible have been used to justify settler-colonialism. "The Zionist Bible" explores the ways in which modern political Zionism and Israeli militarism have used the Bible - notably the Book of Joshua and its description of the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land - as an agent of oppression and to support settler-colonialism in Palestine. The rise of messianic Zionism in the late 1960s saw the beginnings of a Jewish theology of zealotocracy, based on the militant land traditions of the Bible and justifying the destruction of the previous inhabitants. "The Zionist Bible" examines how the birth and growth of the State of Israel has been shaped by this Zionist reading of the Bible, how it has refashioned Israeli-Jewish collective memory, erased and renamed Palestinian topography, and how critical responses to this reading have challenged both Jewish and Palestinian nationalism.
This text investigates the Biblical justification for Zionism & charts the historical rise of Zionism since its 19th century roots. Providing a contribution to the argument for a single democratic & secular Israeli state, it shows how the biblical language of 'chosen people' & 'promised land' is used to justify ethnic division & violence.
Fraser Hunter, graduate of the Royal Military College, Kingston, served first in India and China with the Bombay Lancers before joining the Survey of India and doing secretive work for the British Foreign Office. During the First World War and back in uniform again he was first Chief of Staff to the South Persia Rifles, then onto St Petersburg at the height of the Revolution. Following his escape across Siberia and onto New York and then the Western Front, he joined the Persian Cossacks in their campaign against the Bolsheviks. Back in the Survey and before retirement and politics in Ontario, he reached the upper echelons of their secretive work in India. His political career was as controversial as his military, illustrating a degree of integrity that would have endeared him to Rudyard Kipling.
The articles in this collection provide an alternative view of Middle Eastern history by focusing on the oppressed and the excluded, offering a challenge to the usual elite narratives. The collection is unique in its historical depth - ranging from the medieval period to the present - and its geographical reach, including Iran, the Ottoman Empire/Turkey, the Balkans, the Arab Middle East and North Africa. The first to focus on the oppressed and the excluded, and their differing strategies of survival, of negotiation, and of protest and resistance, the book covers: both major social classes and sectors the working class the peasantry the urban poor women marginal groups such as gypsies and slaves Based on perspectives drawn from the work of the great European social historians, and particularly inspired by Antonio Gramsci, the collection seeks to restore a sense of historical agency to subaltern classes in the region, and to uncover ‘the politics of the people’.
As Western troops withdraw from Afghanistan, the Afghan National Army (ANA) has been tasked with securing the country. Having broken the system that was in place, the US and NATO are now leaving Afghanistan to face Taliban elements, criminal warlords, and private militias which disrupt any efforts to pull the nation together. Yet the ANA arose under foreign tutelage and will remain dependent upon foreign support for the foreseeable future. Thus it can only be seen by the majority of Afghans as a legacy of the occupation and not a 'national' institution. The ANA is shrinking by the day. Musa Khan Jalalzai focuses primarily on the ANA's ability to carry out the task it has been assigned: 'ensuring security in Afghanistan.' Along the way, the author covers a wide spectrum of topics: the current state of the Afghan National army (ANA), Taliban infiltration, intelligence failures, the "intelligence war" among various nations and alliances (NATO, US, UK, ISAF), green on blue attacks, and the rise of war criminals heading private militias which present the biggest challenge to the reorganization of State institutions.