Common History Textbook Projects as a Tool for Reconciliation

This paper analyses the role of history education in conflict and post-conflict societies, describing common history textbook projects that have been successfully undertaken in Europe, particularly between Germany and its neighbors. Ever since the emergence of the modern school system and the implementation of compulsory education, textbooks have been seen as privileged media. The knowledge they convey is relatively persistent and moreover highly selective: every textbook author must choose and omit, condense, structure, reduce, and generalize information. Within this context, history textbooks are often at the center of interest. This paper extracts lessons on common history projects from the German and European cases and suggests concrete ways to apply these lessons for enhancing projects as part of conflict prevention and resolution in post-Soviet Eastern Europe.