Ervand Abrahamian (Persian: یرواند آبراهامیان; Armenian: Երուանդ Աբրահամեան; born 1940) is an Iranian-American historian of the Middle East.
"[2] Abrahamian was an activist and a member of the Confederation of Iranian Students — National Union (CISNU) that opposed the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the 1960s and 1970s.
[2] As of 1976, he was one of the vice chairpersons of the Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran (CAIFI), a "minor front" of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).
[10] Abrahamian is considered an authority on Iranian opposition movements,[18] including the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK).
He has appeared as a guest on BBC Persian,[20] Charlie Rose,[21] Worldfocus,[22] Amanpour & Company,[23] Democracy Now!,[24] Lou Dobbs Tonight,[25] and other series and channels.
"[27] Christoph Marcinkowski wrote that Abrahamian's publications "feature more or less the left-wing political perspective of their author – especially in terms of socio-political and socio-economic analysis.
[29] Werner has described Abrahamian as a "vivid chronicler of the history of the Iranian Left, defying any attempt to view twentieth-century Iran exclusively through an Islamicate lens.
[25] In 1986, he objected that The New York Times obituary of Loy W. Henderson did not mention his role in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, which he described as "probably his most important contribution."
What is more, he set a State Department precedent by permitting secret agents to use the embassy compound to carry out the coup.
"[32] In 2017 he noted that the "gradual but consistent shift to the right in recent years naturally erodes this welfare state and thereby undermines the social basis of the regime.
[36][37][38] Criticisms included disproportional focus on the Communist movement[39] and the Tudeh Party,[40] and reliance on British archives.
"[39] Gene R. Garthwaite wrote that the book made three significant contributions: "its class analysis will force all of us-Marxist and non-Marxist alike-to re-examine our ideas about Iran's twentieth-century history and will provide the basis for discussion for some time to come; it gives the best account of the development of the Tudeh party and its social, intellectual, and political bases; and it presents the most detailed account of the Pahlavi period (ca.
"[35] In Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin (1989) Abrahamian investigated the origins and history of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK).
"[48] Abrahamian's 1999 book Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran covers political repressions against opposition movements both before and after the Islamic Revolution, ending with the mass executions of 1988.
"[55] Abrahamian's 2013 book The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations was met with mixed to favorable reviews.
[56] David S. Painter opined that "Despite some problems, The Coup is a valuable corrective to previous work and an important contribution to Iranian history.
"[1] Mansour Farhang noted that his books are "indispensable source of information, insight and analysis for scholars and general readers as well.
"[67] In 1995 Fred Halliday opined in Iranian Studies that Ervand Abrahamian "has already established himself as one of the finest writers on twentieth-century Iran.
"[50] Eric Hooglund wrote in 2000 that Abrahamian's books have "established his reputation as the leading scholar of Iran's twentieth-century social history.