Review: Middle East and Asia: Iran Faces the Seventies
| Date | 01 December 1974 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207402900430 |
| Published date | 01 December 1974 |
| Author | R.M. Savory |
| Subject Matter | Review |
682
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
interpret
Iran's
role in the
Persian
Gulf.
Oil
is
Iran's
principal
source
of
revenue,
and
the
Gulf
is
its
lifeline.
Faute
de
mieux,
Iran
has
therefore
assumed
the
principal
responsibility
for
the
defence of
the
region.
The
implications
of
this
role
for
the
Iranian
economy
are
serious;
in
Professor
Ramazani's
words, 'will
the
regime
be able
to
provide
butter,
guns
and
freedom
simultaneously?'
(p
102)
Professor
Ramazani
is
a
leading
authority
on
Iranian
political
affairs
and
foreign
policy,
and
his
book,
lucidly
written
and
free
from
prejudice,
is
essential
background
reading
for anyone
interested
in
the political
and
economic
problems
of
this strategically
vital
area.
R.M.
Savory/University
of
Toronto
IRAN
FACES
THE
SEVENTIES
Edited
by
Ehsan
Yar-Shater
New
York:
Praeger
[Toronto:
Burns
&
MacEachern],
1971,
xx, 391pp,
$12-.50
This
book
is
a
collection
of fifteen
essays
based
in
the
main
on
papers
presented
at
a
conference
entitled
'Iran
in
the
ig6os'
held
at
Columbia
University
in
1968.
John
Badeau
says
in
his
foreword
'the
object
was
to
determine
neither "What
is
right
with
Iran?"
nor
"What
is
wrong
with
Iran?"
but
simply
"What
has
gone
on
in
Iran
of
significance
during
the
past
decade?"'
The
essays,
all
written
by
specialists,
range
over
a wide
variety
of
topics:
land
reform, the
economy,
and
capital
development;
internal
politics
and
foreign
affairs;
changing
social
attitudes
result-
ing
from
the
weakening
of
religious belief, from
the
work
of
the
Plan
Organization,
from
the
impact
of
the
mass
media,
and
the
like.
The
book
concludes
with
a
group
of
chapters
describing
the
revolutionary
changes
taking
place
in
literature
and
the
arts.
The
average
quality
of
the
essays
is
high, and
each
contains much of
interest
to
both
the
specialist
and
the
layman.
It
is
impossible
within
the
compass
of
a
short
notice to
make
any
detailed
criticism of
the
individual
chapters.
One
or
two,
for instance,
Marvin
Zonis's
chapter
on
education,
are already
in
some
respects
outdated,
but
this
is
inevitable
with
all
writing
which
is
topical.
Brian
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