Content area
Full text
TEACHING AND LEARNING DIFFICULT HISTORIES IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTS: A CRITICAL SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH Terrie Epstein and Carla L. Peck, editors New York, Routledge, 2018 263 pages, cloth, $149.95
One of the biggest obstacles to the institution of genuine and long-lasting peace across the world remains the exclusionary narratives in which populations are enculturated-what conflict theorist Marc Howard Ross called "psychocultural narratives." Such narratives, be they national or ethnic or religious, may continue to define other populations in antagonistic terms long after formal conflict has come to an end or, by completely excluding certain cultural minorities, fuel resentment on the part of those who do not see themselves reflected in the larger collective story. Indeed, the successful maintenance of a true peace depends upon broadening old narratives so as to incorporate a previous "them" into a new "us." Given that formal education systems constitute one of the primary means by which group narratives are maintained, controversies over education regularly erupt as societies attempt to come to terms with their own "difficult histories"-the legacy of violence and oppression that is so often the untold darker side of those sagas of greatness. In the United States, history was originally added to the public school curriculum for purposes of fostering patriotism, and so the inclusion in educational materials of the facts about colonial genocide, lynching, and the murderous suppression of poor people's movements often provokes a violent backlash from those who wish to maintain the original focus upon "American exceptionalism." Likewise, schools, museums, and textbooks across the world have been the site of contention...