Description
Book SynopsisProvides a close look at Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to understand Iran's recent history and how the Revolutionary Guards view their own roles therein. By using the Iran-Iraq War, one of the most significant events in the Islamic Republic's history, as a focal point, Tracy Samuel analyzes the links between war and revolution.
Trade ReviewThe Iran–Iraq war was a defining period in the formation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its upstart military: the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). In this impressive monograph, Annie Tracy Samuel dives deeply into the IRGC's own historiography and explores how the organization understands the conflict and how it wants the war to be remembered in Iran's political consciousness. More broadly, it is a book about war and memory, and of the politics and meaning-making of institutional histories.' Afshon Ostovar, Naval Postgraduate School
'The IRGC's role in the Iran–Iraq War has not terminated with the end of war-related activities, but continued with a mission of writing the history of the 'holy defense.' Considering the critical roles of the war and the IRGC in state-building of the Islamic Republican regime, Tracy Samuel's study provides an impressive account of the IRGC's framing of the long-lasting war.' Bayram Sinkaya, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University
'… the book is highly valuable as it introduces the wealth of primary sources created by the IRGC over the decades, which are seldom examined in historical studies.' Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, The Middle East Journal
Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Guards: the establishment of the IRGC; 3. Historians: the IRGC's history of the Iran-Iraq war; 4. Striking while the Revolution's hot: the causes of the Iran-Iraq war; 5. Willing and unable: Iran confronts the Iraqi invasion; 6. The epic of Khorramshahr: Iran in the war from occupation to liberation; 7. Pursuing the aggressor: Iran's invasion of Iraq; 8. War for peace: the Iran-Iraq war, 1985-1987; 9. An end to a war without end: the Iran-Iraq war, 1987-1988; 10. Faith and firepower: Iran's prosecution of the Iran-Iraq war; 11. The holy defense continues: the Iran-Iraq war and Iran's national security; 12. Unfinished history: the IRGC and the Holy Defense Research and Documentation Center since the war; 13. Keeping the war alive: the IRGC's commitment to writing the history of the Iran-Iraq war.
