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IRAN Nationalizing Iran: Culture, Power and the State, 1870-1940, by Afshin Marashi. Seattle, WA: University of Wwashington Press, 2008. xi + 138 pages. Notes to p. 165. Bibl. to p. 180. Index to p. 186. $60 cloth; $25 paper. Reviewed by Maziar Behrooz
The subject of modern state building and nationalism in the Middle East has been one of much interest to social scientists, particularly historians. The debate on how far a sense of "nation-state" has developed in the region and how it developed has been an ongoing one. The question has become an even more pressing political one in recent years as the region has witnessed a number of state meltdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq and the reemergence of local loyalties as a substitute for national ones.
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