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Henrik Åström Elmersjö In Sandberg, Karlsson, Molin and Ohlander (1996:233) there is an interesting reference to the older Swedish idea of the Russians: “It took until the 18 th century until Russia experienced the same progress as Western and Northern Europe went through during the 16 th century. Even if the Russians were not more ‘arrogant, deceitful and barbaric’ than other peoples it is probably a fact that the Russians were about 200 years behind in development.” According to this textbook, it is mostly geographical matters that can explain this situation. Because of its geographical location, Russia developed alongside Southern and Eastern Europe and not Western Europe. Following this line of argument, it was through moving the capital further west that Russia managed to become more European. However, it is also apparent here that Russia failed, at least in some sense, to become a Western European country, and this is considered a consequence of the negligence of human rights and the existence of serfdom in Russian society (Sandberg et al., 1996:238). In Nyström, Nyström and Nyström (2008), some of the earlier textbooks’ ideas of Europe are again found: the idea of craftsmanship, and a regular army (which in the earlier textbooks were part of the evidence of Europe’s cultivation). However, serfdom in Russia is also mentioned as a major marker of difference between Russia and Europe (Nyström et al. 2008:112). None of the textbooks makes a lucid remark on any religious matters that makes Europe a specific entity in comparison to Russia, with a small exception in the textbooks from 1955 and 1996. In part, this is probably because the religious demarcation in the textbooks before the 1970s is drawn between Christianity (the West) and Islam (the East), even if the pejorative slurs are less frequent in the later books (Pallin and Boëthius, 1910:76, 262; Falk, 1922:79; Jacobson and Söderlund, 1941:143; Bäcklin et al., 1955:123–124). In the later textbooks the subject of Islam and Europe is more or less avoided, but the distinction reappears in a more tolerant form in Nyström et al. (2008:111). Table 1 attempts to illustrate the similarities and differences in definitions over time. Table 2: The Meaning of “Europe” and the Depiction of “the Other” in Swedish History Textbooks’ Descriptions of the 18th Century Meanings of Europe Description of “the other” Pallin-Boëthius (1910) Cultivated, Occident Barbaric, Orient Falk (1922) Cultivated, Occident Centralisation Reactionary Jacobson-Söderlund (1941) Swedish, Occident Barbaric, Despotic, Lawless Bäcklin-Holmberg…(1955) Human dignity, Legal Rights, Individuality Tham-Kumlien… (1967) Occident Orient Barbaric, Conservative, Orthodox Graninger-Tägil (1973a) Individuality Not explicit Bergström-Löwgren…(1983) Semi-Industrial, Centralised, Free Agricultural, Slavery Sandberg… (1996) Free, Legal Rights Slavery Nyström… (2008) Free Slavery, Reactionary 70
The Meaning and Use of “Europe” in Swedish History Textbooks, 1910–2008 Note that the content of the textbooks produced by Bäcklin et al. in 1955 and 1962 is identical, therefore only one of them was analysed in this section. The major change in the conception of Europe between the first and the second half of the 20th century is the abandonment of the cultivated idea of Europe. If there is a line of development in the idea conveyed, the starting point in the first half of the century is distinctive notions of European cultivation vs. Russian barbarism, which changes into European liberalism/freedom vs. Russia’s conservatism/slavery in the second half of the 20th century. The distinction between the orient and the occident is most evident in textbooks from the beginning of the century, but previous research on other textbooks has argued that it reappears in the 1980s and 1990s (see Kamali, 2006:82–93). The Idea of Contemporary Europe as a Historical Feature Those pupils reading school history textbooks in 1910 would arguably be left with the notion that European civilisation is both the past and the future. For instance, European superiority is evident in the description of the colonisation of Africa. The Europeans are bold and have, as Christians, the right to superiority, while non-European rulers of Africa are considered “dreadful, slave-owners” (Pallin and Boëthius, 1910:255–256). The very last part of the concluding chapter of this book is a summary of the cultural field in the period between 1789 and 1910. The main character of this last chapter is “Europe” and “Europeans”. As for occurrences in everyday life within Europe, almost everything is said to be moving towards a better world which includes: an emphasis on the value of human life, religious life (especially the missionaries in the colonies), public education, the war industry (that can produce weapons to end wars more quickly) and free trade (Pallin and Boëthius, 1910:267). Falk (1922) concludes his textbook by portraying (Western) Europe in opposition to Russia and heralding democracy as a particular European trait. Further, the colonies of the European states, Russia and Turkey seem to be considered “others” (Falk, 1922:310–314). Of note, the positive idea of Europe does not appear to have been broken by the events of the Great War which had ended only a few years before the textbook was published. When describing the period between 1919 and 1939, Jacobson and Söderlund (1941) divided their last chapter into two parts. The first part describes “the victorious democracies” and the second describes “the totalitarian states”. Notions of European co-operation are almost invisible in the text as the individual states are made the main characters of the chapter. The principal theme is the division of Europe and not only the obvious divide between the democracies and the totalitarian states, but also between France and England (which is the name used for Great Britain). The League of Nations is mentioned as a failed (American) project which was almost entirely devoted to peacekeeping (Jacobson and Söderlund, 1941:376–387). European co-operation in the wake of the Second World War is described in Bäcklin et al. (1955) as a political effort. Further, the textbook also claims that European 71
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EDUCATION INQUIRY Volume 2, No. 1,
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Editorial Per-Olof Erixon, Editor E
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THEMATIC SECTION HISTORY TEXTBOOK R
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