Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: modernity and "culture" -- Identifying a tension -- Problems in the discourse of development -- Recovering the local: the Iranian Revolution -- The trajectory of the work -- 1 Western narratives of modernity -- Introduction -- Orientalism and the Occidentalist discontent -- Montesquieu's Persian Letters -- Hegel: the colonization of world history -- Karl Marx: the materialist narrative of modernity -- The "popularization" of the Islamic Other -- Conclusion -- 2 Reconciling with the West's Other -- Introduction -- The Mashruteh movement: reconciliation through capitulation -- 3 The crisis of secularism and the rise of political Islam -- Introduction -- The decline of democratic secularism (1941-53) -- The unions -- Political parties -- The political aftermath of the coup -- Modernization and its discontent -- The social polarization of urban life -- Intellectuals and the romanticization of Shi'ism -- The politicization of Shi'ism -- Reform in Shi'i institutions -- The meaning of political leadership -- The principal dilemma of the Shi'i institution -- Maktab-e Tashayo (School of Shi'ism) -- The monthly religious society -- Shi'ism as a radical ideology -- Conclusion -- 4 Islam as a modernizing ideology: Al-e Ahmad and Shari'ati -- Introduction -- The ultimate contradiction -- Al-e Ahmad: "return" to the "roots" -- Ali Shari'ati: Islamic ideology as an authentic discourse -- Conclusion -- 5 German intellectuals and the culture of modernity -- Introduction -- The German context -- The "discourse of authenticity" in Friedrich Nietzsche and Ernst Junger -- Martin Heidegger -- Conclusion -- 6 The tragedy of the Iranian Left -- Introduction -- A brief history of socialist movements -- The Revolution and the Left.

The revolutionary conjuncture -- Expansion and contention -- The social bases and composition of the Left -- Critiques of the Left -- A response to the critiques -- 7 Modernities of our time -- The "Islamic mind" -- Modernization and the survival of cultures -- Predicament of secularism -- Theoretical and political implications -- Notes -- INTRODUCTION: MODERNITY AND "CULTURE" -- 1 WESTERN NARRATIVES OF MODERNITY -- 2 RECONCILING WITH THE WEST'S OTHER -- 3 THE CRISIS OF SECULARISM AND THE RISE OF POLITICAL ISLAM -- 4 ISLAM AS A MODERNIZING IDEOLOGY: AL-E AHMAD AND SHARI'ATI -- 5 GERMAN INTELLECTUALS AND THE CULTURE OF MODERNITY -- 6 THE TRAGEDY OF THE IRANIAN LEFT -- 7 MODERNITIES OF OUR TIME -- Bibliography -- Index.