This book analyzes the recent development of Gulf capitalism through to the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. Situating the Gulf within the evolution of capitalism at a global scale, it presents a novel theoretical interpretation of this important region of the Middle East political economy.

"In this book, Mohammad A. Chaichian examines the process of dependent urbanization in Iran and Egypt relating to each country's unique colonial history and dependence on a constantly changing global economy since the early nineteenth century. Using historical data, Chaichian argues that the development of dependent economies has led to displacement of the rural population and migration to major urban centers such as Tehran in Iran and Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt. The findings of this study also indicate that by the mid-1970s Iran and Egypt were fully incorporated into the global economy, but in various degrees have since resisted the systemic demands of the new phase of globalization that requires open and fluid borders for utilization of labor, capital investment, and transfer of information."--BOOK JACKET.

For decades, political observers and pundits have characterized the Islamic Republic of Iran as an ideologically rigid state on the verge of collapse, exclusively connected to a narrow social base. In A Social Revolution, Kevan Harris convincingly demonstrates how they are wrong. Previous studies ignore the forceful consequences of three decades of social change following the 1979 revolution. Today, more people in the country are connected to welfare and social policy institutions than to any other form of state organization. In fact, much of Iran’s current political turbulence is the result of the success of these social welfare programs, which have created newly educated and mobilized social classes advocating for change. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted in Iran between 2006 and 2011, Harris shows how the revolutionary regime endured though the expansion of health, education, and aid programs that have both embedded the state in everyday life and empowered its challengers. This first serious book on the social policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran opens a new line of inquiry into the study of welfare states in countries where they are often overlooked or ignored.

This book is concerned with following the change in Iranian rural structure as it relates to 1962 Iranian land reform and the 1979 revolution. The most general objective is to explore the essence of class relations in Iran's rural areas for the period between World War II and 1990.