The Iran depicted in the headlines is a rogue state ruled by ever-more-defiant Islamic fundamentalists. Yet inside the borders, an unheralded transformation of a wholly different political bent is occurring. A “liberal renaissance,” as one Iranian thinker terms it, is emerging in Iran, and in his pamphlet “Reading ‘Legitimation Crisis’ in Tehran,” Danny Postel charts the contours of the intellectual upheaval. Postel is a journalist and critic living in Chicago. He is a Senior Editor of openDemocracy, an online global magazine of politics & culture. 

The World Beyond the Headlines series is a collaborative project of the Center for International Studies, the International House Global Voices Program, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs of the University of Chicago. The series is funded in part by the McCormick Tribune Foundation. © 2007 The University of Chicago

Recorded Thursday, January 11, 2007 at International House.