ABSTRACT
Browne’s seminal study of the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 established the narrative template which has largely survived to this day. 1 It was an intensely intimate portrait written while the revolution was itself unfolding, targeted at a British readership whose interest in such matters was at best marginal. Browne himself had not visited Iran for the better part of a generation but he had maintained close ties and communications with a number of Iranian ideologues and activists, an engagement that both enriched his study but also made it vulnerable to charges of romanticism. Browne sought to trace a narrative of national awakening, with a cast of heroes and villains, from the Tobacco Revolt through the Revolution in 1906. In painting his ‘national’ canvas, Browne drew on tropes that would have been familiar to students of European nationalisms, most obviously the Italian Risorgimento, a subject Browne had studied, with its own tobacco boycott. 2 The tendency therefore was to apply some of these ideas, images and concepts to the Iranian experience and provide a dramatic narrative that would appeal both to public opinion, and perhaps to policy makers themselves.
