Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran: Labour, Decolonisation and Colonial Modernity, 1933 51

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Mattin Biglari

Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran

Labour, Decolonisation and Colonial Modernity, 1933 51

Mattin Biglari

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Hardback

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English

Edinburgh University Press
10 June 2025

Middle Eastern history; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Colonialism & imperialism; National liberation & independence, post-colonialism; Energy industries & utilities

Series: Edinburgh Historical Studies of Iran and the Persian World

Iran's nationalisation of oil in 1951 was a key catalyst for the rise of resource nationalism as an animating force of global decolonisation, expelling the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC, now known as BP) after nearly fifty years of domination in southwest Iran. Nationalising Oil & Knowledge in Iran turns attention to the origins of nationalisation in the everyday struggles between the oil company and subaltern actors in the city of Abadan, then home to the world's largest oil refinery and deeply imbricated in networks of colonialism and racial capitalism.

Engaging with energy history, postcolonial/subaltern studies, and science & technology studies, the book focuses on the politics of expertise: how nationalisation reproduced the epistemic coloniality of the oil company, which rested on local dispossession, social engineering, as well as racial and gendered segregation. It argues that nationalisation diverged from subaltern contestations of oil expertise in Abadan, which presented a more fundamental challenge to colonial modernity.

By: Mattin Biglari
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781474489607
ISBN 10: 1474489605
Series: Edinburgh Historical Studies of Iran and the Persian World
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 10 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dr Mattin Biglari is a Lecturer in Asian and Middle Eastern Environmental History at the University of Bristol.

Reviews for Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran: Labour, Decolonisation and Colonial Modernity, 1933 51

A brilliantly argued and painstakingly researched investigation into the intersection of oil's material politics and subaltern histories of decolonisation that challenges the methodological nationalism that has characterised much of the modern historiography of Iran. Biglari's multi-layered and globally connected account of Iran's struggles over oil knowledge reaches out far and wide, also provides food for thought to scholars and students of the post-colony and the international oil industry.--Nelida Fuccaro, New York University Abu Dhabi