May 68 and Its Afterlives or Iran

May '68 and Its Afterlives

Author: Kristin Ross

During May 1968, students and workers in France united in the biggest strike and the largest mass movement in French history. Protesting capitalism, American imperialism, and Gaullism, 9 million people from all walks of life, from shipbuilders to department store clerks, stopped working. The nation was paralyzed—no sector of the workplace was untouched. Yet, just thirty years later, the mainstream image of May '68 in France has become that of a mellow youth revolt, a cultural transformation stripped of its violence and profound sociopolitical implications.

Kristin Ross shows how the current official memory of May '68 came to serve a political agenda antithetical to the movement's aspirations. She examines the roles played by sociologists, repentant ex-student leaders, and the mainstream media in giving what was a political event a predominantly cultural and ethical meaning. Recovering the political language of May '68 through the tracts, pamphlets, and documentary film footage of the era, Ross reveals how the original movement, concerned above all with the question of equality, gained a new and counterfeit history, one that erased police violence and the deaths of participants, removed workers from the picture, and eliminated all traces of anti-Americanism, anti-imperialism, and the influences of Algeria and Vietnam. May '68 and Its Afterlives is especially timely given the rise of a new mass political movement opposing global capitalism, from labor strikes and anti-McDonald's protests in France to the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle.

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Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution

Author: Michael M J Fischer

Unlike much of the instant analysis that appeared at the time of the Iranian revolution, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution is based upon extensive fieldwork carried out in Iran. Michael M. J. Fischer draws upon his rich experience with the mullahs and their students in the holy city of Qum, composing a picture of Iranian society from the inside—the lives of ordinary people, the way that each class interprets Islam, and the role of religion and religious education in the culture. Fischer’s book, with its new introduction updating arguments for the post-Revolutionary period, brings a dynamic view of a society undergoing metamorphosis, which remains fundamental to understanding Iranian society in the early twenty-first century.

Table of Contents:

1	Culture, History, and Politics	1
2	Rise and Decline of the Madrasa	12
3	Madrasa: Style and Substance	61
4	Qum: Arena of Conflict	104
5	Discourse and Mimesis: Shi'ism in Everyday Life	136
6	The Revolutionary Movement of 1977-1979	181
	Epilogue: Muharram 1400/1979	232
App. 1	Courses of Study	247
App. 2	Maraji'-i Taqlid since the Twelfth Imam	252
App. 3	Qum Statistical Profile	254
App. 4	Chronology of Religious and State Administrations	256
App. 5	Budget of the Shrine of Fatima, Hadrat-i Ma'suma, in Qum	258
App. 6	Karbala	260
	Notes	265
	Glossary	289
	Bibliography	293
	Index	305