On June 10, 2022, the Iran 1400 Project spoke with Dr. Robert Steele about his new book The Shah’s Imperial Celebrations of 1971 – Nationalism, Culture and Politics in Late Pahlavi Iran. In his presentation, Dr. Steele put the celebration in the context of the Shah’s rise, rather than his fall. Through interviews, news clippings, and more, he identified the goals of the celebration and distinguished myths from reality. A Q&A session in the second half of the event touched on world leaders’ reactions to the event, its cultural implications, its influence on Iranian identity, and more. We were also grateful to hear remarks from Mehrdad Khonsari, a former Iranian diplomat who was in charge of the celebration in the U.S. at the time.
Robert Steele is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Iranian Studies, working on the cultural and intellectual history of modern Iran, with a focus on the Pahlavi period. He has a Ph.D. in Arab and Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter and an MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Manchester.
