Abbas Milani
{{short description|Iranian-American historian and author (born 1949)}}
{{BLP sources|date=April 2020}}{{Infobox academic
| name = Abbas Milani
| image = Milani Abbas croped.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Milani in 2010
| birth_name = Abbas Malekzadeh Milani
{{lang|fa|عباس ملکزاده میلانی}}
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1949}}
| birth_place = Tehran, Imperial State of Iran
| residence =
| citizenship = Iranian, American
| nationality =
| discipline = Political science and Iranian studies
| workplaces = {{plainlist|
- National University of Iran
- University of Tehran
- University of California, Berkeley
- Notre Dame de Namur University
- Stanford University}}
| thesis_title = Ideology and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution: The Political Economy of the Ideological Currents of the Constitutional Revolution
| thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/16334626
| thesis_year = 1975
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| spouse = Fereshteh Davaran (?–1988; divorced),
Jean Nyland
| children = 1
| education = {{plainlist|
| native_name = {{lang|fa|عباس ملکزاده میلانی}}
}}
Abbas Malekzadeh Milani ({{langx|fa|عباس ملکزاده میلانی}}; born 1949) is an Iranian-American historian, educator, and author. Milani is a visiting professor of political science, and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University. He is also a research fellow and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.{{Cite web|title="Culture wars" and democracy in Iran: A new politics?|url=https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/%E2%80%9Cculture-wars%E2%80%9D-and-democracy-iran-new-politics|access-date=2020-11-21|website=The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University|publisher=The President and Fellows of Harvard College|language=en|quote=Hamid & Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Iran Democracy Project at Hoover Institution}}{{Cite web|last=Kane|first=Karla|date=February 28, 2020|title=Hoover Institute hosts Intelligence Squared U.S. debate on Iran|url=https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2020/02/28/hoover-institute-hosts-intelligence-squared-us-debate-on-iran|access-date=2020-11-21|website=www.almanacnews.com|language=en}} In Milani's book, Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran (2004, Mage Publications), he has found evidence that Persian modernism dates back to more than 1,000 years ago.{{Cite journal |last=Tucker |first=Ernest |date=December 2005 |title=Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran, by Abbas Milani. Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 2004. 168 pages. US$19.95 (Paper) ISBN 0-934211-90-6 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0026318400048355/type/journal_article |journal=Middle East Studies Association Bulletin |language=en |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=231–233 |doi=10.1017/S0026318400048355 |s2cid=165060180 |issn=0026-3184}}
Biography
Milani was born in Iran to a prosperous family and was sent to California when he was sixteen, graduating from Oakland Technical High School in 1966 after only one year of studies. Milani earned his Bachelor of Arts in political science and economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970; and his Doctor of Philosophy in political science from the University of Hawaiʻi in 1974.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}
With his then-girlfriend Fereshteh, Milani returned to Iran to serve as an assistant professor of political science at the National University of Iran from 1975 to 1977. He lectured on Marxist themes veiled in metaphor but was jailed for two years as a political prisoner for "activities against the government".{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SQUARE-PEG-Abbas-Milani-is-the-only-Iran-expert-2596177.php|title=SQUARE PEG / Abbas Milani is the only Iran expert and one of very few politically independent scholars at Hoover Institution|last=Harlick|first=Jeanene|date=2005-11-11|website=SFGate|access-date=2019-03-26}} He was a research fellow at the Iranian Center for Social Research from 1977 to 1978. He was also an assistant professor of law and political science at the University of Tehran and a member of the board of directors of Tehran University's Center for International Studies from 1979 to 1986, but after the Iranian Revolution he was not allowed to publish or teach. He left Iran in 1986 during the time of the Iran–Iraq War for the United States, and his son Hamid and his wife Fereshteh followed.
Returning to California, Milani was appointed professor of History and Political Science as well as chair of the department at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} He served as a research fellow at the Institute of International Studies at University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}
Milani became a Hoover Institution research fellow in 2001 and left Notre Dame de Namur for Stanford University in 2002. He is currently the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University.
Milani’s profile gained widespread international recognition following the publication of The Shah in 2011, a work that received universal acclaim. Reviewers praised its depth of scholarship and Milani's impartiality in addressing such a controversial topic, with David C. Acheson of Washington Times describing it as "impressive" in its research and analysis. Acheson further concluded that The Shah is "likely to be the definitive biography of its subject", citing its extensive use of sources, notes, interviews, and correspondence as evidence of its scholarly rigor and thoroughness.{{cite news|author=Acheson, David C.|url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/9/messy-end-of-shahs-regime/|title=BOOK REVIEW: Messy end of shah's regime|newspaper=Washington Times|date=2011-02-09|accessdate=2018-11-29}} {{cite web|author=Caryl, Christian|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/shah_book_review/2294263.html|title=New Biography Of Shah Of Iran Feels Oddly Contemporary|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=2011-02-01|accessdate=2018-11-29}}{{cite news|author=Meisler, Stanley|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-xpm-2011-feb-20-la-ca-abbas-milani-20110220-story.html|title=Book review: 'The Shah' by Abbas Milani|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=2011-02-20|access-date=2018-11-29}}
Since 2011, Milani shifted the focus of his research to the era of Reza Shah.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}
Political activities
Milani embraced Marxism–Leninism during his youth and was a member of a Maoist underground cell that was uncovered by Iranian security forces in 1975.{{citation|first=Michael|last=Beard|title=Review: Tales of Two Cities: A Persian Memoir by Abbas Milani|jstor=4329373|journal=Middle East Journal|volume=53|number=3|year=1999|page=490}} He was subsequently jailed at Evin Prison, and became disillusioned with revolutionary politics. His eventual ideology has been described as neoconservative.{{citation|first=Hossein|last=Khosrowjah|title=A Brief History of Area Studies and International Studies|jstor=41858661|journal=Arab Studies Quarterly|volume=33|number=3/4|year=2011|page=141}} In July 2009, Milani appeared in a United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing amidst 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, and called for imposing "multilateral and crippling sanctions" on Iranians. He also advised the congressmen not to support the military invasion of Iran because it would not politically contribute to the American goal of regime change. Shortly afterward, Iranian prosecutors in the post-election trials built a case against the defendants by connecting them to Milani, mentioning him by name in the official indictment. Hamid Dabashi criticized Milani for undermining the Green Movement of Iran by supporting foreign intervention instead of grassroots democracy in Iran.{{citation|first=Hamid|last=Dabashi|title=The Green Movement in Iran|date=2011|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-1841-4|pages=128–132; 134–136}}
Personal life
Milani separated from his first wife, Fereshteh Davaran, in 1988.{{citation|first=Romesh|last=Ratnesar|title=The Iranian Optimist|date=July–August 2010|url=https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-iranian-optimist|work=Stanford Magazine}} He lives on Stanford campus with his second wife, Jean Nyland, who is chair of Notre Dame de Namur's psychology department.
Bibliography
=Books=
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=Malraux and the Tragic Vision |publisher=Agah Press |year=1982}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=On Democracy and Socialism |publisher=Pars Press |year=1987}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=Modernity and Its Foes in Iran |publisher=Gardon Press |year=1998}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=Tales of Two Cities: A Persian Memoir |publisher=Mage Publishers |year=1996 |location=Washington, D.C.}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran |publisher=Mage Publishers |year=2004 |isbn=9781933823744 |location=Washington, D.C.}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran, 1941-1979, Volumes One and Two |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=2008 |isbn=9780815609070 |location=New York, NY}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution |title-link=The Persian Sphinx |publisher=Mage Publishers |year=2009 |isbn=9781933823348 |location=Washington, D.C.}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=The Shah |title-link=The Shah (book) |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4039-7193-7}}{{Cite web |date=November 15, 2010 |title=The Shah by Abbas Milani, Palgrave, $30 (480p) ISBN 978-1-4039-7193-7 |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781403971937 |access-date=2022-12-06 |website=publishersweekly.com}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |title=The Myth of the Great Satan: A New Look at America's Relations with Iran |publisher=Hoover Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780817911362 |series=Hoover Institution Press Publication}}
- {{Cite book |last1=Milani |first1=Abbas |title=Politics and Culture in Contemporary Iran: Challenging the Status Quo |last2=Diamond |first2=Larry Jay |publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers |year=2015 |isbn=9781626371477 |location=Boulder, CO |author-link2=Larry Diamond}}
=Essays and articles=
- {{Cite news |last=Milani |first=Abbas |date=June 30, 2005 |title=The Silver Lining in Iran |work=The New York Times |type=Op-ed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/30/opinion/the-silver-lining-in-iran.html |issn=1553-8095}}
- {{Cite news |last=Milani |first=Abbas |date=November 10, 2005 |title=For Jews, there have always been two Irans |work=The New York Times |type=Op-ed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/opinion/for-jews-there-have-always-been-two-irans.html |issn=1553-8095}}
- {{Cite news |last=Milani |first=Abbas |date=February 23, 2007 |title=What Scares Iran's Mullahs? |work=The New York Times |type=Op-ed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23milani.html |issn=1553-8095}}
- {{cite journal |date=November–December 2007 |title=Pious populist |journal=Boston Review |volume=32 |issue=6 |url=http://bostonreview.net/milani-pious-populist |last=Milani|first=Abbas}}
- {{Cite news |last1=Milani |first1=Abbas |last2=Diamond |first2=Larry |author-link2=Larry Diamond |date=July 6, 2009 |title=Let's Hear the Democracies |work=The New York Times |type=Op-ed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/opinion/07iht-edmilani.html |issn=1553-8095}}
- {{Cite book |last=Milani |first=Abbas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RsLDAAAQBAJ |title=Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Challenge to Democracy |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2016 |isbn=9781421419985 |editor-last=Diamond |editor-first=Larry |editor-link=Larry Diamond |pages=57–66 |chapter=Iran's Paradoxical Regime |editor-last2=Plattner |editor-first2=Marc F. |editor-last3=Walker |editor-first3=Christopher}}
- {{Cite news |last=Milani |first=Abbas |date=January 22, 2021 |title=What Has Gone Wrong Between Iran and the United States? |pages=12 |work=The New York Times |type=Op-ed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/books/review/america-and-iran-john-ghazvinian.html |issn=1553-8095}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Abbas Milani}}
- [http://www.stanford.edu/~amilani/ Milani's Official Stanford Web Site]
- [http://www.hoover.org/fellows/10010 Milani's Hoover Institution Biography]
- {{C-SPAN|1012407}}
{{List of political prisoners of Iran}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Milani, Abbas}}
Category:20th-century Iranian historians
Category:21st-century American historians
Category:Iranian expatriate academics
Category:Iranian emigrants to the United States
Category:Iranian democracy activists
Category:Notre Dame de Namur University faculty
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
Category:Stanford University Department of Political Science faculty