The economic history of Iran is a subject that has barely begun to receive the attention it deserves. Articles and parts of books on particular aspects of the subject appeared as early as the nineteenth century, but it is only since World War II that there have been extensive and serious studies in English, and these are still few and far between. Prof. Lambton's book Landlord and Peasant in Persia deserves to be singled out as a major pioneering study, and recently there has appeared Professor Charles Issawi's edited volume, The Economic History of Iran 1800-1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971). This book brings together an outstanding collection of articles, excerpts, and sources, many of them translated from Persian, French, German, Russian, and Italian, that provide a basis for an understanding of the economic history of Iran in the nineteenth century.

The belief that entrepreneurship, i.e., the predisposition towards risk-taking and innovative behavior in commercial situations, is the key factor in economic development is still widely held by social scientists and developmental planning experts. Based upon the theoretical positions of economists, such as Schumpeter, entrepreneurial historians and many sociologists, the occurrence of economic development is explained by the presence of individuals whose actions promote capital accumulation, rational allocation of resources, and the like for their own benefit and, as a consequence, for the benefit of society. Often intertwined is the belief that the shaping force behind the structure of society and its processes of change are values exemplified by Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the classic statement of this position.

This article presents some of the general findings and, in particular, the information on family planning practice in Isfahan City and Ostan compiled in two phases of the Isfahan Communications Project (ICP). In terms of information generated, the project had two main stages: (1) the ostan-wide sample presurvey (May, 1970), and (2) the ostan-wide mass media campaign (August, 1970-March, 1971). The presurvey was made to obtain demographic information and data on the knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) of family planning among the population and their exposure to the various media. The media campaign was directed at those couples who because of their media behavior and previous experiences with contraception were thought to be predisposed to adopt modern family planning methods.

Bahār provides an unusual example of a writer belonging to different periods of Persian literature. He began writing early and lived long enough to pass through several admittedly rapid stages in modern Persian history. Thus he is known as one of the poets of the Constitutional period, whose poems were chanted and recited by the overthrowers of the old autocracy, even more by those who counteracted the Lesser Autocracy of Muḥammad ˓Alī Shāh, as well as the poet, journalist, scholar and teacher of the restored constitution, the reign of Riā Shāh and just after.

A close look at the Dīvān reveals a third period, less important from the literary point of view, but which preceded the others and gave Bahār a stamp he was never wholly to lose, even though he was acutely sensitive to the rapid changes Persian society and culture were to undergo during his life.

It is a commonly held view that development policies lead to domestic inflation together with balance of payments problems. The underlying mechanisms which in many developing countries have made this view come true are rather well-known. Increased investment outlays lead to increased purchasing power and imports; prices rise, and, to the extent that aggregate output and real income actually increase, this in itself will further contribute to the deterioration in the country's balance of payments. The time will soon come when the International Monetary Fund, as a precondition for extending short-term loans to support the country's depleted reserves of foreign exchange, will ask for deflationary measures in order to restore order to the country's finances. Development will slow down, and if the balance of payments has deteriorated significantly, devaluation will be required.

Rapid developments of the twentieth century have forced attention upon the changing status and role of women in all societies. As they have acquired a longer life expectancy, are having healthier children, and with the advancing technology, mass production and distribution contributing to their lessening housekeeping chores, women have acquired more and more leisure time.

While the industrialized societies have been mostly concerned with the problem of leisure time for these women, and making optimum use of all human resources, both male and female, the developing countries have been facing the basic problem of illiteracy, and particularly illiteracy of their female population. There has always been a small segment of the female population in developing countries with as much, if not more, leisure time than those of the industrialized nations.

The entire Persian-speaking world, including Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, has had a very long and colorful tradition in oral literature. Since memorization has long been an integral part of Persian culture, rhyming as an aid to memorization has been especially prevalent in Persian literature. Because of this, and because of the oral tradition in general, Persian speakers have long been especially conscious of rhyming patterns. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate what morphological and syntactic devices are used to form rhyming patterns (as well as alliteration and assonance patterns) in Persian, and to investigate the effect that these rhyming patterns have on Persian grammar. In addition, the paper will attempt to determine what semantic categories are especially amenable to echo-word formation.

The least significant, and probably the least deliberate of syntactic devices for echo-word formation in Persian, is the use of various suffixes and prefixes.

It has long been accepted, almost as a Cold War truism, that the first direct confrontation between Soviet Russia and the United States took place over Iran in February, 1946. According to the traditional picture of Cold War origins, Russia's refusal to evacuate her forces--together with her simultaneous efforts to establish a puppet regime in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan--tipped the West off as to her global intentions. America and Great Britain promptly registered protests within and outside the United Nations, and, in the first effort at containment, prevented direct Soviet penetration of the entire Middle East. After Iran, the West was forewarned. As a leading textbook notes, in pointing to Russia's reluctance to withdraw, “Soviet power was prepared to move into any position that the Western states were not willing to defend.”

Most memoirs of American policy-makers stress that the United States had responded, and responded of necessity, to Russian incentive.