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 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.