STEREOTYPES AND THE POLITICAL CLIMATE
In a new book called "Germans, Prussians and Germanic Peoples. A Comparative Analysis of the Presentation of German History in American High Schools' Social Studies Textbooks from 1924 to 1988" Iris Bork- Goldfield examines outside stereotypes and judgements of the German people.
Bork-Goldfield looks at 33 textbooks and divides them into four groups according to political events such as World War I and II, and the building of the Berlin Wall. She argues that historians are strongly influenced by political events and change their view of Germany and its inhabitants depending on the political and economic relationship between the U.S. and Germany.
It might come as a surprise how differently the question of guilt regarding WW I is treated, or that there is hardly any mention of any kind of resistance to the Hitler regime. And it might even come as a shock to find how long it took to include the Holocaust into U.S. social studies textbooks. Inferences may be drawn as to how these findings could be included in German foreign language and culture courses.
Author/editor: Bork-Goldfield, Iris
Title: Deutsche, Preussen und Germanen. Eine vergleichende Analyse der
Darstellungen deutscher Geschichte in amerikanischen
Geschichtslehrwerken der High School von 1924 bis 1988.
Published by: iudicium, 1996. ISBN: 3-89129-268-6
Further data: 250 Seiten, broschiert, DM 48.
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