Social studies textbooks currently used in Iran have been rewritten since 1979 to achieve the socialization of children into current Islamic political thought. An analysis of the content of current social studies textbooks concludes that explicitly political textbooks are used to teach state approved values and appropriate political behavior while preparing children to become citizens in a country with a narrowly defined framework of government ideology. The stated goal of the Iranian government is to use schooling to prepare such citizens, and the social studies textbooks used in the schools today successfully reflect these values. Islam is presented as a political religion and the topics included are used for conscious political ends. The world is presented in black and white terms, including the depiction of the former Pahlavi regime as corrupt and degrading, the United States and the West as the enemy, and political dissent as nonexistent. This paper, which analyzes content, is limited to determining what sort of ideal person the new Islamic textbooks wish to create; it is not intended to measure the effectiveness of the textbooks in attitude formation. A 57-item bibliography is included. (NL)