Towards the Great Civilization

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980) was the last shah of Iran, who ruled the country from 1941 until 1979. Robert Steele is a researcher at the Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is the author of The Shah’s Imperial Celebrations of 1971 (I.B. Tauris, 2020) and Pahlavi Iran’s Relations with Africa: Cultural and Political Connections in the Cold War (2024), and co-editor of Iran and Global Decolonisation: Politics and Resistance After Empire (2023).

• Preface by Ali M AnsariForewordNoteNote on the TranslationIntroductionChapter I A GLANCE AT THE WORLD OF TODAYThe Fundamental Problems of the World of TodayThe Crisis of CivilizationThe Path of the FutureChapter II IRAN IN THE ERA OF REVOLUTIONIran of TodayLand and Agricultural ReformsNatural ResourcesLabour ProblemsPromotion of DemocracyEducationPublic HealthDevelopment and HousingJudicial MattersAdministrative RevolutionCampaign Against Corrupt PracticesGeneral InsuranceThe Rastakhiz (Resurgence) Party of IranPetroleumIndependent National PolicyChapter III ON THE WAY TO THE GREAT CIVILIZATIONPolitical OrderEconomic OrderSocial Order Educational and Cultural OrderAfterword: My Message to the Iranian People

The rewards and ravages of time, and the trove of new archival material available for the first time have together begotten a veritable revisionism in the history of Iran’s encounter with modernity and the pivotal role of the two Pahlavi monarchs in that encounter. If Mohammed Reza Shah’s Answer to History was written when he had tasted the “bitter bread of banishment,” his Towards a Great Civilization was bathed in the triumphalism of a king at the height of power and accomplishments. A welcome addition to the plethora of Pahlaviana.