Why did I love this book?
The author takes us on a fascinating journey into one of the most mesmerizingly contradictory megalopolis of the world: Tehran, the capital city of Iran.
From the beautiful anecdotes about “nude watching” in the public baths of pre-modern Iran, to the hustle and bustle in the ultra-modern shopping malls of today, this book is an ode to Tehran and a complete guide into its labyrinthine political and social forces at the same time.
As a scholar, but also as someone who visited Tehran several times, this book will always be a reminder of why this place has had such a unique influence on so many people from East and West, North and South.
All the more, perhaps, because the book was preceded by tragedy as the young author died in an avalanche while mountain climbing at the tender age of 37.
1 author picked A Social History of Modern Tehran as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Tehran, the capital of Iran since the late eighteenth century, is now one of the largest cities in the Middle East. Exploring Tehran's development from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, Ashkan Rezvani Naraghi paints a vibrant picture of a city undergoing rapid and dynamic social transformation. Rezvani Naraghi demonstrates that this shift was the product of a developing discourse around spatial knowledge, in which the West became the model for the social practices of the state and sections of Iranian society. As traditional social spaces, such as coffee houses, bathhouses, and mosques, were replaced by European-style cafes, theatres, and…