School History Textbooks across Cultures

Book excerpt: What do school history textbooks mean in the contemporary world? What issues and debates surround their history and production, their distribution and use across cultures? This volume brings together articles by authors from the United States, Italy, Japan, Germany, France, Russia and England, each piece drawing attention to a series of fascinating yet highly specific national debates. In this collection, perspectives on the place and purpose of school history textbooks are shown to differ across space and time. For the student or scholar of comparative education this compilation raises important methodological questions concerning the grounds and parameters upon which it is possible to make comparisons.