SEĆANJE PROTIV ISTORIJE. UDŽBENICI ISTORIJE KAO GLOBALNI PROBLEM
MEMORY AGAINST HISTORY. HISTORY TEXTBOOKS AS GLOBAL PROBLEM

Summary/Abstract: Most nations based themselves on common culture, language and, specially, history. Those were the factors for building a unique imaginary foundation as a basis for new type of solidarity, which was at the nation’s core. Social, cultural, and political elites created and strengthened awareness of the common bases that were supposed to create a new type of community, through a specific social engineering. That is why “controlling memory and oblivion has been one of the major concerns of classes, groups and individuals who dominated and dominate societies in the historical era”. One of the keys for creating the sentiment of belonging to a whole was the invention of a tradition, construction of an image about the shared past, which was supposed to form a new feeling – a feeling of belonging – among the previously unconnected individuals and diverse social groups. History found itself at the core of this “invention of a tradition” – more specifi cally, a desired image of the past, created by the construction of the shared memory. This is specially truth for history teaching and history textbook. History textbooks might not be the most important element in the learning process, but is the decisive medium that transmits government’s messages to the widest possible school audience. That is why history textbooks could also be analyzed as historical sources that witness the intellectual, spiritual, ideological, and political state of the society. They provide states and societies with the desired identity norms, which is why they are always politicized and always refl ect the political context in which they have been created. Since the process of fortifying the national collective memory is an integral part of the process of building a nation, textbooks have become an important hand of the government, agents of the official memory, with the goal of ensuring that the “approved knowledge” is transmitted. This is why Michael Apple’s definition is very useful – that textbooks promote a certain belief system, legitimize and establish political and social order. Legitimate knowledge is the result of complex power relations and struggles among identifiable class race gender and religious groups.

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