The Second World War stands as the most devastating and destructive
global conflict in human history. More than 60 nations representing 1.7
billion people or three quarters of the world's population were consumed
by its horror. Not surprisingly, therefore, World War II stands as a
landmark episode in history education throughout the world and its
prominent place in school history textbooks is almost guaranteed. As
this book demonstrates, however, the stories that nations choose to tell
their young about World War II do not represent a universally accepted
"truth" about events during the war. Rather, wartime narratives
contained in school textbooks typically are selected to instil in the
young a sense of national pride, common identify, and shared collective
memory. To understand this process War, Nation, Memory describes and
evaluates school history textbooks from many nations deeply affected by
World War II including China, France, Germany, Japan, USA, and the
United Kingdom. It critically examines the very different and complex
perspectives offered in many nations and analyses the ways in which
textbooks commonly serve as instruments of socialisation and, in some
cases, propaganda. Above all, War, Nation, Memory demonstrates that far
from containing "neutral" knowledge, history textbooks prove fascinating
cultural artefacts consciously shaped and legitimated by powerful
ideological, cultural, and sociopolitical forces dominant in the
present.
