- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (Feb 13 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375706305
- ISBN-13: 978-0375706301
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 2.5 x 20.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 299 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #986,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
There is probably no person better suited to write this book on Iran's cultural and political transformation than Robin Wright. She has traveled to Iran as a reporter since 1973, when the country was "one of the few comfortable places for foreigners"--including women--to live and work, a place where "short skirts were acceptable" and women "wore bikinis on the beach." But the revolution in 1979 changed all that: "For anyone who'd been to Iran before, the new Islamic Republic of Iran seemed almost like a different country." There was the revival of religious fundamentalism, the hostage crisis, a costly war with Iraq, the sponsorship of terrorism, and Iran-Contra. Iran became one of the most perplexing and vital beats in all of journalism, a touchstone for Middle Eastern politics and an emerging presence on the world stage--and Wright has been there for more of it than any other foreigner.
The Last Great Revolution is a sweeping portrait of a misunderstood country. Much of it is anecdotal rather than analytical, but all is in the service of illuminating what Wright calls "the world's only modern theocracy." She writes of an airline stewardess who gave Wright Band-Aids to cover her nail polish before entering the country and a customs official who ripped up her deck of playing cards one by one. But there are also unexpected opportunities for women (they can become engineers and lawyers), plus a measure of religious freedom (there are communities of Christians and Jews). Old and new ways are in constant conflict: "All the current signs indicate that the Islamic Republic is not likely to survive in its current form." --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Few Western journalists are more familiar with postrevolutionary Iran than Wright (In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade, etc.). Wright first traveled to Iran as a young reporter in 1973 and has made dozens of excursions to the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Going beneath the veil, as it were, of contemporary Iran, Wright reveals several cultural trends that have occurred inside the political revolution itself and argues that these "revolutions within the revolution" will be lasting. She shows not just how Islam has impacted Iran but how the people of Iran have impacted Islam, liberalizing it and setting in motion changes that will be as far-reaching for Islam as the Reformation was for Christianity. Wright paints a fascinating portrait of a complex society in which women--despite headscarves--enjoy considerable empowerment in the workplace and politics, in which the arts thrive and there is greater religious tolerance than many readers will have supposed (Iranian Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians enjoy their own reserved seats in Parliament). Wright argues that the results of all these combined religious, political and cultural trends will eventually mark Iran's as the last great revolution of the modern era, on a par with the French and Russian revolutions. Wright's combination of reportorial immediacy and historical perspective makes her book the most accessible guide yet to a country where the battle between modernity and tradition is heating up. Illus. not seen by PW. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
ON THE DUSTY HIGHWAY south from bustling Tehran, an enormous gold dome rises importantly across the horizon. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
ON THE DUSTY HIGHWAY south from bustling Tehran, an enormous gold dome rises importantly across the horizon. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Great? What's so great about Islamic revolution? There's nothing great about it,
By
This review is from: The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran (Paperback)
This is a very disappointing book. I have followed Ms. Wright's works on mideast and I often happen to agree with her. But this book is one of her weakest ones. Probably smiling Mullahs deceived her too. There's nothing great about the revolution in Iran. Inflation? Oppression? High rate of suicide, addiction and prostitution in a society where these issues were almost non existent until "The Last Great Revolution" seized power from the westernized government of the late Shah of Iran in 1979. I really don't understand what's so great about it. She admits to being put in hijab before getting off the airplane in Tehran after the revolution and then she compares the treatment she got before the revolution. Well, a society that oppresses women is not so great. Is it? Any how, this book is another attempt by the Liberal and Leftist journalists in the west to show a rosie picture of the Iranian regime and if I didn't know, i would be fooled too. This is a disappointing work. Can't recommend it.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Shameless!!!!!,
By Azadi (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran (Paperback)
Robin Wright is known to many Iranians as a Mullah Apologist. In this book, she continues her delusional commentaries on the status of the Islamic regime in Iran. What baffles me is why she did not mention anything about the widespread use of torture, murder, summery execution, and other sadistic tactics of the Mullahs to suppress opposition. As an Iranian, I am disgusted by people like Robin Wright who become partners in the crime of the Islamic regime by defending them in exchange for favors. The Islamic regime in Iran is one of the most brutal dictatorships ever known to man. Robin Wright has done the people of Iran injustice by putting a good face on the Islamic regime. Shame on her.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not the Iran we all think we know...,
By
This review is from: The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran (Paperback)
Americans have a pretty bleak picutre of Iranian society fixed in their heads. And who can blame them? The turmoil after the shah's exile, the hostage crises, the war with Iraq, chadors, Salman Rushdie, and a many other similar problems in Iranian society do not exactly conform to American values. Well, that was then and this is now. Iran is changing. It has changed. The country that told it's people to go forth and multiply now requires classes on birth control before marriage. Vesectomys are given out free by the state. Even abortion is allowed in certain cases (health and monetary problems). The Catholics aren't even that progressive! Social change is gripping Iran. The new Generation of student protestors aren't capturing Americans, they are fighting against the conservative forces in their own government. They aren't calling for a second revolution or a return to the Shah's times. They want reform. And they are, alebit more slowly then most Americans would prefer, winning. Mohammad Khatami, president of Iran, won with 70% of the vote on a strong reformist platform. Wright's books is required reading for anyone who wants to understand this new Iran.
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