The American Mission in Mid-Twentieth Century Iran

FAIN: FT-279028-21

Matthew Kenneth Shannon
Emory and Henry College (Emory, VA 24327-0947)

Writing two chapters of a book on the influence of American missionaries in Iran, 1940-1970.

My NEH project is titled “The American Mission in Mid-Twentieth Century Iran.” It explores the multiple meanings of “mission” – or, the literal and figurative influence of the American Presbyterian missionaries – and how it became manifest in Iran during the mid-twentieth century. It argues that the Presbyterians contributed to a joint American-Iranian mission from the historical ruptures of the 1940s through the peak of U.S. global power in the 1960s. In an era associated with oil sales and arms deals, missionaries mediated the American encounter with Iran and informed the nationalist vision of Iran’s last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.