In this detailed study of modern Iran, Yadullah Shahibzadeh examines changes in people's understanding of politics and democracy. He analyzes the way Iranian intellectuals and ordinary people talk about politics and democracy, individually and collectively, and the ways they rationalize their political postures and actions. He also investigates the historiographies of sociopolitical structures and cultural constructions in Iran. This book overcomes the shortcomings of traditional historiographical approaches by challenging the monopoly of intellectuals' and political elites' perspectives on historical events and by demonstrating the intellectual and political agency of ordinary people.