Military-authoritarian functions of history education in Nazi Germany and Iran during the period of Reza Shah: a comparative study

The expansion of militarism in totalitarian regimes is common. This issue has been observed simultaneously in Iran during the Reza Shah era and Germany during the Hitler era; both governments had a modern and mechanized army, needed talented and motivated individuals to provide military force, and saw history education as a suitable arena for promoting their ideas. History education, by including issues about war, has the ability to develop militarism in the field of education. So the main question of the research is what were the dimensions of militarism in history education in Nazi Germany and Iran during the Reza Shah era, and what were the differences or similarities? In this regard, the aim of the present study is to conduct a comparative study of the functions of history education in the development of militarism in these two regimes. The research method is descriptive-analytical and based on history textbooks. The results of the study show that, despite some similarities, the extent and nature of militarism in history lessons differed significantly between the governments of Reza Shah and Hitler. Reza Shah's focus was primarily on modernizing and protecting Iranian sovereignty, while Hitler's government pursued strongly expansionist policies.