Civilisationens begynnelse – en lycklig historia? : En innehållsanalys av hur svenska historieläroböcker berättar om högkulturerna Egypten, Mesopotamien, Kina och Indien

The reason for this study is based on the premise that the era of High Cultures is perceived as an almost forgotten time that few remember or know something about. This study aims to investigate what textbooks for years 7-9 tell us about the first high cultures. Furthermore, the study aims to examine what is told as positive and what is told as negative in the textbooks' portrayal of the High cultures. The method used to conduct the study is qualitative narrative content analysis. The analysis is presented from five different perspectives: economic, political, cultural, social and from an environmental perspective. The content was further analyzed to account for what is presented as positive and what is present as negative. The results show that the three textbooks presented all perspectives on Mesopotamia and Egypt, but representations about China and the Indus culture is generally missing in the books. Only the textbook Historia 7-9 present a short paragraph about the Indus culture. The textbooks presented both negative and positive narrative about the High Cultures, however, the positive narrative is more prominent, and the High cultures are perceived as a bright and flourishing time. Based on these results, it was concluded that the textbook tradition is one reason why high cultures have fallen into a passive oblivion. This because modern history is given more space in the textbooks and because the textbooks present positive perspectives on the history of High Cultures, which is considered uninteresting by students as a negative perspective on history is found to interest students more. Lastly, the study showed that multiple perspectives and a critical aspect were missing in the textbooks