War Nation Memory

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