In this study, John Foran tried to manifest the transformation of Iran’s social structure form the rise of the Safavid dynasty in 1501 to the dramatic social movements of 20th century. The book has used five basic approaches to understand the social dynamics of Iran through this period—the dependency paradigm, world-system theory, modes of production analysis, the nature of the state, and political cultures of opposition and legitimation.
By employing these analytical tools then, Foran concludes that Iranian social structure is the historical product of both internal and external dynamics and that commercial, political, and military relations with the West shaped social arrangements in ways that activated a series of "populist" movements of resistance. He maintains that these movements have been only partially successful because they rested on fragile social bases and because foreign powers have continued to intervene in the country's affairs. In other word, Iranian history has been described as a sequence or series of fragile attempts at social change repeated mass movements which have ended either in foreign intervention, or, in the case of the 1978 revolution, in foreign war and internal repression.
Since the book has been established on a through scientific foundations, the critical analysis of its content requires enough sociological background which is beyond my knowledge. However, only to make some brainstorming, I have to mention that the concept of “depended development” was not clear enough. Especially, if you read the book from the perspective of modern economic development theories, you feel the ambiguity of the writer’s reference to role Iran’s trade with the West in the development process and despite his account of the existence of monopoly and the absolutist governance, it’s hard to find the illuminating mechanism through which these factors contribute to Iran’s underdevelopment. To sum it up, as a student of economics I was personally skeptic regarding the dependency paradigm and World-System Theory by Wallerstein which has been used by Foran in order to explain Iran’s development process and its relation with the West between 1500 till 1988.
Notwithstanding, I should praise the writer for his attempt to conduct a formal research with great historical information on societal structure of Iran. Surely, reading the “Fragile Resistance” would deepen one’s knowledge about Iran’s history and also, provide profound insights regarding the social factors that shape the history of this great country.
