About the Author

Danny Postel is senior editor of the London-based magazine openDemocracy and contributing editor to Dædalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a member of the Committee for Academic and Intellectual Freedom of the International Society for Iranian Studies.

Reviews

"A brilliant inquiry into the contemporary Iranian predicament and what it means for the world. At a time when all too many of our leading thinkers are mired in the weeds of provincialism and narrow ideological wars, Postel has written a work of grace, intelligence, and towering integrity. Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran is nothing less than a masterpiece of moral and political criticism."--Afshin Molavi, author of The Soul of Iran: A Nation's Journey to Freedom (6/18/2006 12:00:00 AM)

"Danny Postel's Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran is particularly thought-provoking. It brings to light a new interpretation of contemporary Iranian politics that offers an alternative to neoconservative democracy promotion. The book also offers a self-critical look at the politics of the Left, holding liberals responsible for their lack of solidariy with Iranian democrats in their struggle against authoritarianism. . . . Reading 'Legitimation Crisis'in Tehran forces us to ask a crucial question: What is the best way to promote democracy in Iran?"--Babak Rahimi "Middle East Policy" (9/1/2007 12:00:00 AM)

"In Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran, Postel takes the US left to task for neglecting this important social movment and suggest that the new Iranian democratic discourse is an original form of 'liberal Third Worldism' that is distinct from neoliberalism and deserving of our support."--Janet Afary, Kevin Anderson "The Nation" (7/16/2007 12:00:00 AM)

"In a perfect world, someone with the power to stop the imminent pre-emptive military strike against Iran would find the time to pick up a little pamphlet published the Prickly Paradigm Press and spend a few hours considering the intellectual stakes in the Great Satan's latest confrontation with the Axis of Evil. . . . Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran by Danny Postel offers a very different view of the 'fundamentalist Iran' so casually discussed in Washington and it underscores the dangerous simplifications which are becoming a habitual liability of the Bush administration."-- "Stabroek News (Guyana)" (2/22/2007 12:00:00 AM)

"Short and lively . . . a return to the 18th-century form of argumentative prose."--Time Out Chicago
--Jonathan Messinger "Time Out Chicago" (8/16/2007 12:00:00 AM)