Compared to rival ideologies, liberalism has fared rather poorly in modern Iran. This is all the more remarkable given the essentially liberal substance of various social and political struggles – for liberal legality, individual rights and freedoms, and pluralism – in the century-long period since the demise of the Qajar dynasty and the subsequent transformation of the country into a modern nation-state. The deeply felt but largely invisible purchase of liberal political ideas in Iran challenges us to think more expansively about the trajectory of various intellectual developments since the emergence of a movement for reform and constitutionalism in the late nineteenth century. It complicates parsimonious accounts of Shi'ism, secularism, socialism, nationalism, and royalism as defining or representative ideologies of particular eras. Hidden Liberalism offers a critical examination of the reasons behind liberalism's invisible yet influential status, and its attendant ethical quandaries, in Iranian political and intellectual discourses.

‘In Hidden Liberalism, Banai thoughtfully analyzes the ways in which liberal thought in twentieth-century Iran developed as resistance to Western imperialism but also in opposition to competing national ideologies. Against the association of liberalism with the West, Banai persuasively demonstrates that liberal thought, embattled and invisible as it might have been, marked modern Iran.’

Loubna El Amine - Northwestern University

‘Hidden Liberalism offers an innovative and engaging analysis of the vicissitudes of political thought in modern Iran, between liberal aspirations and the ideological forces opposing them. A valuable contribution to methodological questions in the history of ideas.’

Ali Gheissari - University of San Diego

‘Are the aims and values of liberalism limited to Western culture or do they have universal appeal? Using Iran as a case study, Hidden Liberalism, examines this perennial question. The result is a sophisticated examination of the topic that is historically grounded, nuanced in argumentation and compelling in its conclusions. This is an outstanding first book by Hussein Banai that makes an important scholarly contribution to political theory, international relations and Middle East Studies.’

Nader Hashemi - University of Denver