Ali-Reza Nobari, Iran Erupts (Iran-American Documentation Group, Stanford University, December 1978).

This volume is a useful collection of documents and articles on events in Iran, coming largely from French newspapers, and emanating mainly from Iranians and French specialists, with a minor American contribution. Since French sources, and especially Le Monde, frequently contain good information and analyses unavailable in the US, the editors have done a real service in translating and presenting to the US public these articles, documents and editorials. Particularly interesting are the articles of economic analysis of recent policies of the old regime -- one by Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr and Paul Vielle and another by Thierry A. Brun. Further analyses by Eric Rouleau and Helmut Richards are also of interest, as are the interviews and proclamations of Ayatollah Khomeini and the documentary and eyewitness material on events of 1978. There are also first-hand accounts of torture and of Black Friday.

This useful volume should be followed up by translations from the Persian, not just the French, and by analyses that shed light on the different groups and parties now contesting important issues in Iran. One such useful volume has just been published: Hamid Algar’s translation of selected writings of Ali Shariati, The Sociology of Islam. Even in the case of Ayatollah Khomeini himself, the writings put on paper by his students before 1978 often shed important light on him that is not revealed by the more publicized materials dating from 1978.

—Nikki R. Keddie