Who started it and whose fault was it? : An analysis of World War I in textbooks for upper secondary school

The purpose of this essay is to examine how different textbooks present World War I. Both the causes of the war and who got the blame are examined as well as how the different textbooks present these issues. To be able to study these issues four different periods of time were examined through four different textbooks that all has been used in Swedish secondary school. The overall view from the textbooks was that the general disturbances in the Balkans and the current alliance politics were the reasons for the emergence of the war. All textbooks agree that Germany alone was, through the treaty of Versailles, blame for the whole war. The textbooks are all influenced by the current curriculums and the prevailing society, reasons why they may differ. Despite this, the study shows that the differences are not that big