National and Global Historical Perspectives on Textbooks

This edited book discusses the historical role of textbooks in promoting national ideology. It brings together chapters from several continents, establishing a dialogue between the Global North and South, and between authors from relatively newly independent states and those working in countries that were once centres of colonial empire.

Anchored in the symbolic space of the Atlantic, the book examines how empires, nations, and identities were historically constructed and contested across the ocean that once linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas through trade, slavery, and migration. It highlights the enduring influence of colonial legacies in textbooks from Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, and beyond, revealing how these narratives continue to shape civic imagination and historical consciousness.

Clear, engaging, and highly accessible, National and Global Historical Perspectives on Textbooks: The Atlantic Connection invites readers to examine closely what schoolbooks convey, through words and images, and to reflect on how these narratives shape public memory and civic life. By combining theoretical insights with comparative perspectives, the book offers a fresh and timely understanding of the role of education in an era marked by global inequalities, renewed nationalism, and debates over historical truth.

This volume will appeal not only to researchers and students in textbook studies, history education, curriculum theory, and memory politics, but also to teachers, policymakers, and anyone interested in how societies craft the stories they tell their children.
Sérgio Neto is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at U.PORTO, Portugal.
Ana Isabel Ribeiro is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

António Gomes Ferreira is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Luís Mota is an Associate Professor at the Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Clara Isabel Serrano is an Assistant Professor of the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon (IE-ULisboa), Portugal.