Oliver Rathkolb,ed.,How to (Re)Write European History: History and Text Book Projects in Retrospect

Reviewed by: Alexander Reinfeldt, Universität Hamburg, Germany

How to write European history textbooks is the main question in this volume. It opens with an introduction by Rathkolb, an editorial by Erhard Busek, former Vice-Chancellor of Austria and President of the Herbert-Batliner-Europainistitut, and a rather political intervention by Ján Figel’, former European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. Subsequent chapters deal primarily with questions of writing European history in general, such as the considerations of Hartmut Kaelble on writing a European social history and of Etienne François on investigating different cultures of memory in Europe. Susanne Popp traces in her contribution ‘common iconic anchor points’ (81) by analysing the iconic sources used in current history textbooks in Europe. Most of the chapters refer to particular regional, bi- or multilateral history textbook projects in Europe (see, for example, the contributions of Attila Pók, Andreja Valič, Rathkolb, Frédéric Delouche, Christina Koulouri or Peter Geiss) and to European-wide initiatives for history competitions such as EUSTORY (see the chapters of Wolf Schmidt and Mirela-Luminiţa Murgescu). Many of the chapters combine general reflections with a presentation of specific projects.

The chapters are mainly based on papers at the conference ‘How to Write European History’ in Salzburg in 2008, organized in cooperation with the Herbert-Batliner-Europainstitut. Some still read like conference papers rather than developed articles. And they have inevitably been written mostly before the aggravation of the financial and debt crises in the EU and the recent territorial conflicts in Eastern Europe, re-challenging the confidence in the feasibility of a European concept of history. However, recent developments underscore the importance of the core question raised in many of the chapters in the present volume: ‘Can history be converted from a weapon to defend a nation-state's identity against its neighbours into a tool to develop better mutual understanding?’, as Wolf Schmidt puts it (206).

What is noticeable in most of the articles is, first of all, the assumed importance of history education and teaching both for the development of (especially) national concepts of history and for preventing (or fuelling) conflicts between nations – prominently highlighted in the Council of Europe's engagement in this field as depicted by Tatiana Minkina-Milko and culminating, probably, in the assumption of Christina Koulouri that ‘schoolbooks were judged and largely found “guilty” of the wars in the twentieth century’ (136). It would have been worth qualifying more thoroughly this assumed impact of history education and teaching by means of textbooks against other factors potentially influencing the development of individual and collective conceptions of history such as the media or interpersonal relations (Minkina-Milko, for example, mentions the role of families in teaching and learning history rather casually). This leads to a second observation: most of the articles focus on the production of European history textbooks as against the use of textbooks in history education. Bodo von Borries’ contribution is very important in this context, since his chapter is the exception to the rule of potentially over-emphasizing the impact of history textbooks and focusing on their production.

The volume is, nevertheless, a suitable starting point for the preoccupation with the issue of writing European history textbooks. It reveals the obstacles for regional, bi- or multilateral textbook projects, not to mention European-wide ventures, and opens up perspectives on ‘how to (re)write European history’. In this respect, most authors, such as Rathkolb, plead for multiperspectivity and for enabling students to understand how history in Europe is (re)constructed time and time again; others, such as Schmidt, emphasize that a genuine European perspective towards history is rather a question of applying diverse methods and accepting different evidence-based interpretations of history than a question of specific content. In the end, there is nothing like a coherent European history which could be written and studied in history textbooks (or even a single European history textbook to be used throughout Europe). This major insight is both plausible and calming. European history textbooks should convey an impression of the diverse, sometimes conflicting perspectives on European history – or rather on history in Europe. The experiences made with most of the textbook projects referred to in the volume, in this sense, are part of the process – and so is the reading of this thought-provoking volume.