Course (Master degree)

History school textbooks: editorial projects and comparative analysis

The workshop, led by Vittorio Caporella and Giovanni Isabella, has two main aims:

1) To present the editorial organization and the editorial process of school textbooks for upper secondary schools, with a focus on professional skills in the publishing field.

2) To analyze - in a comparative perspective - how the same historical research topic is presented by textbooks of different countries and by different publishers.

Students (individually or groups) will select with the teachers a specific historical theme on which they will carry out a comparative analysis of different school textbooks. The final product of individual/group work will be presented and discussed at a final meeting.

Course contents

 

Previous student works

Martina Forasacco, Silvia Agostoni, Andreea Zaharia
The history of Asia in textbooks: China, Japan, India

Caterina Campisi and Michelle Maggi
Civil Rights in History textbooks: India, Argentina, USA, South Africa, Italy


Martina Niccoli
The Formation of the United States (1): Conquest of the West, slavery, civil war, industrialization

Simone Gallico
The Formation of the United States (2): From the Declaration of Independence to the American Constitution

Francesca Secci
The Crusades

Annamaria Aloisio and Matteo Sau
The Second World War in Italian, USA and South African textbooks

Vincenzo Micaletti
Ancient History: Argentina, China and Italy in comparison

Giulia Campo
Decolonization in Africa vs. Independence in Africa

Daniele Rosi and Alessandro Serri
Totalitarianism in the 20th century: a comparison of history textbooks

Lorenzo Genzo
Didactics of the Cold War: USA, India, South Africa

Michele Tomasetti
Prehistory: Interpretations and Didactics

Cosimo Botto Daddi
The Conquest of America

Martina Floris
The Meiji Revolution