Robert Steele: “Laurence Elwell-Sutton, British Academia and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Crisis of 1951-54”

This talk explores the response of British academia to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Crisis of 1951-54, focusing on the contribution of the Edinburgh University scholar L.P. Elwell-Sutton. Much has been written about the British scholars, such as Ann Lambton and Robert Zaehner, who were indifferent to the Iranian cause and even helped the British government devise strategies to engineer the downfall of the government of Mohammad Mosaddeq. However, we know little about those, such as Elwell-Sutton, who challenged British policy and championed the Iranian case. The talk examines why Elwell-Sutton sympathised so deeply with Iran and how he attempted to shape public opinion during the crisis, both through newspaper articles and radio interviews. Finally, the talk looks at Elwell-Sutton’s Persian Oil, a scathing critique of British oil policy in Iran in the first half of the twentieth century, and the response to it from the British establishment.

Robert Steele is a member of the Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences.

This lecture is for members only and requires registration,