The history of school textbook production predates the Pahlavi era. However, it was during Reza and Mohammad Reza Shah (1925–1979) that it evolved into a functioning system, increasingly dominated by the state. Set within the politics of authorship, this chapter historicises the emergence of the singular and universal textbook policy in 1963. It illustrates how such a policy was rooted in nationalism and the Pahlavis’ mechanism of legitimacy building after the coup of 1953.