The essay analyzes 38 high school textbooks currently on the market to ascertain how they deal with the variety of forms taken by cultural history. Firstly, the article examines some major factors that affect editorial projects, such as Ministry of Education guidelines, path-dependence, marketing issues, didactical issues, teachers’ training, and the relationship between public history and teaching history at school. Secondly, the professional profiles of the authors are scanned, while particular attention is paid to the role played by publishing houses’ editors and advisors in projecting the textbooks, editing texts, and selecting figures. Finally, the essay shows what topics are usually addressed in the light of cultural studies and how they let textbooks look more appealing and historiographically up-to-date. Nevertheless, the cultural approaches are actually adopted as far as they neither question traditional hierarchies/periodizations nor complicate oversimplified stories/interpretations. In short, cultural history has apparently entered Italian schools, its core methodological issues haven’t yet.
Dal ghetto del Rinascimento alle smorfie di Mussolini. Penetrazione e declinazioni della storia culturale nella manualistica scolastica
Marco Rovinello
2021-01-01
Abstract
The essay analyzes 38 high school textbooks currently on the market to ascertain how they deal with the variety of forms taken by cultural history. Firstly, the article examines some major factors that affect editorial projects, such as Ministry of Education guidelines, path-dependence, marketing issues, didactical issues, teachers’ training, and the relationship between public history and teaching history at school. Secondly, the professional profiles of the authors are scanned, while particular attention is paid to the role played by publishing houses’ editors and advisors in projecting the textbooks, editing texts, and selecting figures. Finally, the essay shows what topics are usually addressed in the light of cultural studies and how they let textbooks look more appealing and historiographically up-to-date. Nevertheless, the cultural approaches are actually adopted as far as they neither question traditional hierarchies/periodizations nor complicate oversimplified stories/interpretations. In short, cultural history has apparently entered Italian schools, its core methodological issues haven’t yet.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
