Harvard Professor Answers Burning Questions About Iranian History

In a brisk WIRED inter­view, Pro­fes­sor Tarek Masoud answers fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about Iran’s his­to­ry. He explains that Iran is not an Arab coun­try but a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Per­sian one, with a dis­tinct lan­guage and iden­ti­ty. He traces how the coun­try became an Islam­ic repub­lic after the 1979 rev­o­lu­tion, dri­ven by polit­i­cal repres­sion, eco­nom­ic ten­sions, and resis­tance to West­ern influ­ence.

Along the way, he tack­les the fol­low­ing ques­tions: Just how liberal/progressive was Iran pri­or to the 1979 rev­o­lu­tion? Why did the Iran­ian rev­o­lu­tion hap­pen? Is Iran the only Mid­dle East­ern coun­try whose mod­ern bor­ders were not cre­at­ed by colo­nial pow­ers? The son of Iran’s last Shah is ral­ly­ing pro­test­ers, but do Ira­ni­ans real­ly want anoth­er king?

By the end, you’ll know a lit­tle bit more about the coun­try at the cen­ter of Amer­i­ca’s lat­est mil­i­tary adven­ture.

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