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Political Myths in History Textbooks

War Images of the Falange in Spain (1939–1951) and the Polish Workers’ Party in Poland (1945–1956)

by Maciej Chrostowski (Author)
©2025 Monographs 352 Pages
Series: Studies in Contemporary History, Volume 11

Summary

This book compares the school image of the wartime past of the Falange and the Polish Workers’ Party (PPR), created during the turbulent first decade of Francoism in Spain and Communism in Poland. Demonstrating the political usefulness of the Party was crucial to the consolidation of both regimes. The legitimisation of the new regime called for emphasising the Party’s war effort, not only in defeating the enemy but also in its struggle for social issues. For
school-taught history, the early years of both dictatorships marked a period of breaking with prewar educational concepts and introducing and testing new ‘revolutionary’ pedagogical solutions. This book not only explains the
aspirations of political rulers to rebuild the students’ memory, but also contributes to our understanding of the textbook authors’ perception of the recent past. It analyses the meanings of terms specific to mythical stories, such as nation, power, heroes and their deeds, and wartime struggle.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • List of Abbreviations and Glossary
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Introduction
  • Part I: The Contexts
  • 1. Terms, Theories and Methods
  • 1.1 Theory of Totalitarianism in Research on History of the Falange (FET) and the Polish Workers’ Party (PPR)
  • 1.2 Political Myths in Textbook Writing
  • 1.3 Memory
  • 1.3.1 Collective Memory
  • 1.3.2 Sites of Memory
  • 1.4 Invented Tradition and Imagined Community
  • 1.5 Historical Textbook Research
  • 1.5.1 Text Analysis
  • 1.5.2 Research on Pictures
  • 1.6 Research on Violence and Power
  • 1.7 Gender Studies and the Notion of Machismo in Spain
  • 1.8 The Stereotype of Judeo-Communism in Poland
  • 1.9 Literature, Sources, Method
  • 2. Party, Propaganda and Postwar Ideologisation of Education
  • 2.1 History of the Party During the War
  • 2.1.1 The FET in the Spanish Civil War: 1937–1939
  • 2.1.2 The PPR in the Second World War: 1942–1945
  • Comparative Summary
  • 2.2 Key Principles and Motives of Propaganda in Franco’s Spain and People’s Poland
  • 2.2.1 Nationalists’ Propaganda in Spain
  • 2.2.2 Polish Communists’ Propaganda
  • Comparative Summary
  • 2.3 Postwar Ideologisation of Education in Spain and Poland
  • 2.3.1 Education and Textbook Authors in Spain, 1939–1951
  • 2.3.2 Education and Textbook Authors in Poland, 1945–1956
  • Comparative Summary
  • Part II: Case Studies
  • 3. Main Political Myths in Early Post-War History Textbooks
  • 3.1 The Myths on the Civil War in the Spanish Textbooks
  • 3.1.1 The Alzamiento Nacional of 18th July
  • 3.1.2 The Francoists’ War Effort
  • 3.1.3 The Romantic Myth of the Victory of 1st April
  • 3.2 Political Myths Regarding the Second World War in Polish Textbooks
  • 3.2.1 Brotherhood-in-Arms with the USSR
  • 3.2.2 The War Effort of the Polish People’s Army
  • 3.2.3 Myths of Victory and Common Joy
  • 4. Textual and Pictorial Representation of the Party in Post-War Textbooks
  • 4.1 The Falange in the History Textbooks of the Early Franco’s Regime
  • 4.1.1 The Years 1939–1945
  • 4.1.2 The Period from 1946 to 1951
  • 4.2 The Polish People’s Party in Textbooks and Curricula in Stalinist Poland
  • 4.2.1 The 1945–1950 Era
  • 4.2.2 The Period 1951–1956
  • Conclusions
  • Memory Politics in Education in Franco’s Spain and People’s Poland: the Early Years
  • Textbook Narratives on the FET and the PPR in a Comparative Approach  
  • Similarities
  • Differences
  • Bibliography
  • Index

Details

Pages
352
Publication Year
2025
ISBN (PDF)
9783631926468
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631926475
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631903421
DOI
10.3726/b22334
Language
English
Publication date
2024 (November)
Keywords
Europe fascism – Spain communism – Poland single-party politics political myth collective memory school historiography comparative research consolidation of non-democratic regimes
Published
Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2025. 352 pp., 77 fig. b/w, 6 tables

Biographical notes

Maciej Chrostowski (Author)

Maciej Chrostowski obtained his PhD in History from the University of Greifswald, Germany. He worked at the Faculty of History at the University of Szczecin, Poland, and has published scholarly articles on Polish and Spanish history textbooks. His interests focus mainly on comparative studies and the postwar consolidation of dictatorships.

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Title: Political Myths in History Textbooks