As Seyed-Gohrab rightly mentions in the introduction to this volume, “poets and writers are so essential in the turbulent history of twentieth-century Iran that any history of modern Iran neglecting the role of literature … would be seriously incomplete” (14). This volume, focusing on the second half of the twentieth century, provides a history of the period through analysing the relation between writers and the state. It consists of a prologue, an introduction (by Seyed-Gohrab), eight chapters, notes, a bibliography, and an index.