Hamid Dabashi suggests that the Iranian Revolution of 1978-9 would not have taken place had it not been for the influential ideas set out by eight Iranian Islamic thinkers in the decades before it occurred. Dabashi surveys their contributions to the development of Iran's system of Islamic beliefs, an ideology shaped both by Iranians' perception of themselves and their perception of the West. A fierce desire to resist control and reject any imposition of Western imperialism, Dabashi shows, is what led to the country's revolution against a West-friendly monarchy.