It is quite possible that before too long the Iranian people will chase the Pahlavi dictator and his associates from power...

So wrote Fred Halliday mere months ahead of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, in the conclusion to this classic study. More than an incredibly timely work, it is a deeply researched examination of the Pahlavi era - politically, economically and socially. Halliday takes in the nation's uneven capitalist development, opposition movements, state repression, military apparatus and foreign relations. Even decades later, it remains among the most sophisticated analyses of this period in Iranian history.

This new edition features an extensive introduction from historian Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi along with six of Halliday's essays on Iran after the revolution, which demonstrate how his thinking on Iran evolved over time.