The Economic Modernisation of Iran, 1953-1968: Architects, Agents, and Unwitting Thwarters

In 1953, Iran was at loggerheads with the US and UK, after Prime Minister Mossadeq nationalised Iran’s oil reserves. By 1968, under the autocratic rule of the Shah, Iran was a booming export economy, benefiting from high oil prices and consumer demand. It had unambiguously become a modern industrial economy. Sifting through primary and secondary sources, Ali Rahnema charts Iran’s progress in this vital fifteen-year period. He asks, who can claim the credit? And who bears the blame for its critical failures?

Ali Rahnema is Professor of Economics at the American University of Paris. He is the author of Call to Arms: Iran’s Marxist Revolutionaries, The Rise of Modern Despotism in Iran and An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shari’ati.