Interwar and Second World War in high school textbooks from 1944-2008 : a quantitative study of content and layout

This essay investigates how the chapters of the interwar and the Second World War have changed in the high school history textbooks during the period from 1944 to 2008. In the study eleven history textbooks have been studied, most quantitatively but also qualitatively. For example the number of pages and rows devoted to different subjects and countries are compared in the books over time. The result of the study shows that there are some big changes over time but in most sections there are also big differences between the books, which make it harder to draw general conclusions. There are a lot more names, pictures and dates in the newer books compared to the older ones, although the number of different names is about the same in all the books. As for how much of the textbooks which are about the interwar and the Second World War there has been a little but discernible increase in the newer books compared with the older ones. As for the Scandinavian and Swedish history there have been almost no changes over time in the chapter of the interwar period, but a distinct increase of both areas in the chapter of the Second World War, in the books from the 21th century. The disposition of the interwar period has also changed a little. The new books write more about the great economic crisis, and less about the democracies. In the case of the democracies the newer books write less about the developments in Great Britain and France, but more about that in USA. When it comes to the dictatorships there are no general changes percentage but the newest books write more rows about the dictatorships. The newer books write more about Germany than the older, especially the two newest ones. In the space devoted to Soviet Union and Spain there are no clear changes over time while the space devoted to Italy and Turkey in the books has decreased with time. In the oldest books there was quite some space devoted to Japan then it decreased in some books but then increased and more is written about Japan in the newest books. As for China the newer books write less about the development in the country during interwar period than the older books. The two genocides, the Holocaust and the communists genocide, have quantitatively been given more space and have asserted themselves in the books headlines and been given own sections in the newest books. The number of pictures of the genocides has also increased, especially in the books of the 21th century