Il manuale di storia in Italia: Dal fascismo alla Repubblica, by Piergiovanni Genovesi

Abstract

The question at the centre of this book forms part of a broader history of the continuities between Fascist and democratic Italy which characterised cultural institutions, as well as administrative, and at times political, personnel, who were often drawn from the same intelligentsia. This problem is treated here from the perspective of the history of education and, more specifically, through an analysis of the nature and evolution of elementary school textbooks. The creation of history textbooks, at least in the Italian and French context, dates back to the nineteenth century, and was characterised from the outset by two somewhat contradictory aims. These were, on one hand, the emergence of a concern for, and claim of, historical objectivity, and, on the other hand, an engagement with the writing of national histories. This latter process, with its origins in the Romantic period, was also one of historical invention or, at least, of the reinterpretation of past history within national frameworks. Thus, from the beginning, the twin goals of objectivity and nationalistic education inevitably collided, and this was especially true in the field of school textbooks, as a consequence of their immediate communicative aims, their need for simplification, and their chief role as educational tools in the process of nationalisation of the schooled masses.