description Nikki Keddie Overview
Nikki Keddie was an American historian associated with the University of California, Los Angeles, whose research centered on modern Iran and the wider Middle East. Her subjects included Islamic movements, gender, women, religion, and social change. Her book Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran, published in 1981, examined the historical forces behind the Iranian Revolution and is used in the study of Iranian political and social history.
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What is Nikki Keddie's Roots of Revolution about?
Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran analyzes the political, religious, social, and economic forces behind modern Iranian upheaval. It is especially associated with explaining the background to the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
How does Nikki Keddie study women and gender in the Middle East?
Keddie treats women as historical actors shaped by family law, education, work, religious movements, and state policy. Her work challenges accounts of modern Iran that discuss politics without examining gender and social change.
What is Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution?
It is Keddie's broader interpretation of Iran's modern political development and revolutionary consequences. The book places the 1979 Revolution within longer conflicts involving monarchy, clerics, reformers, and competing social groups.
Why is Nikki Keddie useful for studying religion and politics?
She examines Islamic movements as historically changing political and social forces rather than treating Islam as a fixed explanation. Her research connects religious ideas with institutions, class interests, gender relations, and modern Iranian politics.
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