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The School Uses of History: The Tangled Portrayal of the Spanish Civil War in History Textbooks (1970–98)

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Textbooks and War

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Educational Media ((PSEM))

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Abstract

In this chapter, Gonzalez Delgado and Ferraz Lorenzo analyse representations of the Spanish Civil War in social science textbooks from the transition to democracy to the 1990s. Through close analysis, the authors reveal how textbooks produced between 1970 and 1990 served political needs, drawing on both Franco-era and contemporary historiography to present the war as the failure of the Second Republic and legitimize rule by democratic consensus. Further analysis sheds light on continuities in explanations for the Civil War after 1990, revealing an ongoing need to construct a unified national identity. By tracing the shifting influence of politics and society on textbook publishers, the authors demonstrate that textbooks on the Spanish Civil War must be seen not as univocal but as complex phenomena in their own right.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de La Laguna, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain

    Mariano González Delgado & Manuel Ferraz Lorenzo

Authors
  1. Mariano González Delgado
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  2. Manuel Ferraz Lorenzo
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Correspondence to Mariano González Delgado .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Investigaciones Educativas, CINVESTAV, Mexico City, Mexico

    Eugenia Roldán Vera

  2. Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research , Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany

    Eckhardt Fuchs

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González Delgado, M., Ferraz Lorenzo, M. (2018). The School Uses of History: The Tangled Portrayal of the Spanish Civil War in History Textbooks (1970–98). In: Roldán Vera, E., Fuchs, E. (eds) Textbooks and War. Palgrave Studies in Educational Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98803-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98803-0_10

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