Dr. Michael Zirinsky has been with Boise State since 1973 as a Professor in the
Department of History. He received his Ph.D in Modern History from the University of
North Carolina, his M.A. in International Relations from American University, his A.B. in
Government from Oberlin College and also attended the Community School in Tehran, Iran.
His teaching responsibilities include courses in the history of modern Europe, France and
Germany, the Holocaust, and in the history of the Islamic and modern Middle East. 

Dr. Zirinsky's research interests focus on relations between the Islamic Middle East
and the western world, especially in the twentieth century; Iran's relations with
the west, especially with the United States, Great Britain, and France; and missionaries,
especially American Presbyterians in late Qajar and early Pahlavi Iran.

Articles

Inculcate Tehran: Opening a Dialogue of Civilizations in the Shadow of God and the Alborz, Iranian Studies (2011)

forthcoming

 

PDF

Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Reza Shah, 1921-1926, International Journal of Middle East Studies (1992)

Born in obscurity about 1878 and soon orphaned, Reza Pahlavi enlisted at fifteen in a...

 

PDF

Blood, Power, and Hypocrisy: The Murder of Robert Imbrie and American Relations with Pahlavi Iran, 1924, International Journal of Middle East Studies (1986)

On Friday, July 18, 1924, Robert W. Imbrie, United States Consul in Tehran— and personal...

 

Contributions to Books

Link

Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Reza Shah, 1921-1926, Politics of Modern Iran (2011)

A quarter of a century on from the revolution of 1979 there is an ongoing...

 

Dr. Jordan, Encyclopaedia Iranica (2009)
 

Link

Riza Shah's Abrogation of Capitulations, 1927-1928, The Making of Modern Iran : State and Society Under Riza Shah 1921-1941 (2003)
 

Link

Onward Christian Soldiers: Presbyterian Missionaries and the Ambiguous Origins of American Relations with Iran, Altruism and Imperialism: Western Cultural and Religious Missions in the Middle East (2002)

Papers presented at a conference held at the Rockefeller Foundation Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy,...

 

Presentations

Samuel Jordan and the American College of Tehran, Pacific Northwest Regional Middle East Seminar, Portland State University (2010)
 

The United States and Iran, Idaho Humanities Council (2009)

Since the 1978-79 revolution and emergence of an Islamic Republic, America has been transfixed by...