Appearing at the triumphant moment of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Fred Halliday’s book Iran: Dictatorship and Development immediately became an iconic text to Middle East readers and the international left. The book’s appeal to a generation of leftists, particularly Iranians, was phenomenal.

In December 1978, I was a twenty-three-year-old student dropping out of school in Los Angeles, California, to return home and join the unfolding revolution in Iran. Somehow I had gotten a copy of Halliday’s book ahead of its official 1979 publication date. I devoured its contents, tucked it in my suitcase like a holy relic, and took it back with me to Tehran where it served as my reference guide for understanding why the shah’s government was collapsing.

The 2024 publication of a new edition of Iran: Dictatorship and Development deserves the attention of those interested in Iranian and Middle Eastern history as well as global Marxist intellectual history. In addition to the original 1979 text, the new edition includes six articles Halliday wrote between 1979 and 2009, showcasing his commentary on the Iranian Revolution’s unfolding.