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Introduction by Elizabeth A. Cole, Editor

History and the Politics of Reconciliation (2000-2005)

Elizabeth A. Cole

Teaching the Violent Past: History Education and Reconciliation

Download and read the Introduction to Teaching the Violent Past: History Education and Reconciliation, edited by Elizabeth Cole and copublished with Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (This material appears by permission of the publisher and is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Please contact the publisher for permission to copy, distribute or reprint.)

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Table of Contents (The Book: Teaching the Violent Past)

Advance Praise

"For anyone interested in transitional justice, national reconstruction after mass violence, or multicultural politics, Teaching the Violent Past is a source of insight and wisdom, grounded in compelling case studies of the struggles over teaching history in Germany, Japan, Canada, Spain, Northern Ireland, and Guatemala. It includes probing chapters examining ongoing debates over how Russia, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan should teach their young about the past so that neither national pride nor psychic wounds ends up fueling new violent conflicts. This book offers vital examples of efforts to engage students in critical confrontations with the complexity of the past."
—MARTHA MINOW
Harvard Law School

"Can high school history texts 'facilitate nonviolent coexistence among people divided by the memory of pain and death'? These case studies from ten countries are rich in hopeful, cautious, mixed answers. High school history teachers should take courage from this book, for theirs is a mission not often publicly celebrated: their part in the healing of the wounds in our body politic. No country should boast that it has no such wounds."
—DONALD W. SHRIVER, Jr.
President Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary

"Cole provides an indispensable set of readings for anyone interested in learning how teaching history in the schools relates to healing after violence. Through their gathered chapters, the authors show how any nation's future relates to what the next generation learns about its past. Cole's collection offers a powerful synthesis of multi-national points of view, which, taken together, show how schools can reshape collective national identities and influence reconciliation."
—SARAH WARSHAUER FREEDMAN
University of California at Berkeley