A new and original interpretation of the social history of religion in Iran from the 1870s to the 1970s.
Drawing together religion and other social and cultural issues, it places the revolutionary upheavals of 1977-82 in the context of historical developments over the preceding century. De Groot argues that Iran's revolution was not the inevitable outcome of the nature of the Iranian state or of religion in Iran but was much more complex and resulted from a wider range of factors than is traditionally believed. She focuses on the human responses of Iranians to their experiences and on the...