The European history book

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The European History Book is a trans-European textbook on the political and cultural history of the European continent ( → History of Europe ), which was first published in 1992 as a joint edition by several European publishers . The authors come from 13 European countries and the book has been translated into several languages.

The first edition appeared in France under the title Histoire de l'Europe . The German-language first edition also appeared in 1992 and has been updated regularly since then. The initiator and publisher is the French banker Frédéric Delouche.

Creation & concept

The original aim of the European History Book was to create the basis for a reorientation of school history teaching in the European Community (EC) with the joint work . A twelve-person, EC-wide collective of historians developed it from 1988. The revolutions in 1989 added Jan Bielecki , Jiří Gruša and Jan Kieniewicz. The authors were compiled by the banker Frédéric Delouche. Because of his Norwegian , French and British roots, Delouche himself had seen how mutually exclusive national egoisms and falsifying narratives prevent the formation of a European identity in schools . The new history book was supposed to replace these many interpretations with a new pan-European integration. Delouche initiated the project based on his conviction that economic and political unification of Europe would fail without its cultural unification.

The development of the history book took four years. In 1992 the Histoire de l'Europe was published in Paris and in the same year the German-language edition followed as a European history book in Stuttgart . In addition to German and French, the book was published in other European languages, including English , Spanish , Portuguese , Dutch , Italian and Polish .

The European history book was the first of its kind and showed as early as 1992 that supranational historiography is possible in Europe. Nevertheless, there was culture-related friction in the development process, as national differences in historical didactics , culture of remembrance and evaluation of epochs made this more difficult. The language barrier was also a challenge, not so much in terms of coordinating work, but more in terms of writing the text. Designations for significant historical events in a linguistic and cultural area are often emotionally charged and cause irritation in a pan-European context (for example migration of peoples , French for “invasions barbaric”). Dieter Tiemann's essay The European History Book, published in 2008, offers an insight into the development process . Co-author's experience .

Authors

The German-language edition of 2018 was written by 15 authors from 13 European countries. These are:

Development of the German language edition

The first edition was published in 1992 under the name European History Book as a school book by Ernst Klett Verlag in Stuttgart . Since 1998 the work has been published under the name The European History Book as a general textbook by Klett-Cotta Verlag in Stuttgart , which, like Ernst Klett Verlag, belongs to the Klett Group . In 2011 the contemporary historian Edgar Wolfrum brought the work up to date. In 2011 this version was included in the publication series of the Federal Agency for Civic Education in Bonn . In 2018 the work was updated again by Wolfrum.

criticism

In 2012, Gabriela Jaskulla saw the book's greatest weakness in its supranational claim. She considers the fact that historical science is used to legitimize a political idea to be antiquated: "Whereas in the past a glimpse into history was taken in order to secure national peculiarities (and political rights), history is used in this book, a politically wanted, to establish common supranational identity. So history is thought of in a linear fashion. […] This approach is now at least old-fashioned among historians ”. It is therefore not surprising that important aspects such as globalization or the history of Islam in Europe are neglected and no answers are given to the separation movements in Europe .

The criticism of some conservative British papers was similar . In 1992 there were social engineering allegations in the Times , which suspected an initiative by " socialist [] members [] of the European Parliament " in the European history book .

In 2006, the sociologist Silke Becker criticized the most extensive omission of the female perspective . So the New Women's Movement receives too little attention.

literature

German-language editions

  • Frédéric Delouche (ed.): European history book . Klett-Schulbuchverlag, Stuttgart a. a. 1992, ISBN 3-12-416500-4 .
  • Frédéric Delouche (ed.): The European history book. From the beginnings till now. Completely revised and expanded new edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-608-91855-8 .
  • Frédéric Delouche (ed.): The European history book. From the beginning to the 21st century. Fully revised and updated new edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-608-94650-5 .
  • Frédéric Delouche (ed.): The European history book. From the beginning to the 21st century. Fully revised and updated new edition. Series of publications by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, No. 1233. BpB, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-8389-0233-3 .
  • Frédéric Delouche (ed.): The European history book. From the beginning to the 21st century . Revised and updated edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-608-96257-4 .

Non-German language editions

  • FranceFranceFrédéric Delouche (Ed.): Histoire de l'Europe. Hachette, Paris 1992, ISBN 2010192540 .
  • ItalyItalyFrédéric Delouche (Ed.): Storia d'Europa. Edizioni Scolastiche Bruno Mondadori, Milan 1992, ISBN 8842443859 .
  • PortugalPortugalFrédéric Delouche (Ed.): História da Europa. Minerva Editora, Coimbra 1992.
  • BelgiumBelgiumFrédéric Delouche (Ed.): Histoire de l'Europe. De Boeck, Brussels 1992, ISBN 2804115410 .
  • BelgiumBelgiumFrédéric Delouche (Ed.): Geschiedenis van Europa. Van In, Lier 1992, ISBN 9030619953 .
  • NetherlandsNetherlandsFrédéric Delouche (Ed.): Geschiedenis van Europa. Malmberg, 's-Hertogenbosch 1992, ISBN 9020858440 .
  • PolandPolandFrédéric Delouche (Ed.): Historia Europy. Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1994.
  • SpainSpainFrédéric Delouche (ed.): Historia de Europa. Salvat, 2000, ISBN 8434503484 .
  • United KingdomUnited KingdomFrédéric Delouche (Ed.): The Illustrated History of Europe. A Unique Portrait of Europe's Common History. W&N, London 2001, ISBN 1-84188-108-2 .

Reviews

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gabriela Jaskulla (reviewer): Historical community. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, January 25, 2012. https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/historische-gemeinschaft.950.de.html?dram:article_id=140949 , accessed on June 29, 2019.
  2. ↑ cit. according to Florian Hassel : Napoleon had to give up feathers. Die Zeit, September 18, 1992. https://www.zeit.de/1992/39/napoleon-musste-federn-klass/komplettansicht , accessed on June 29, 2019.
  3. ↑ Silke Becker (reviewer), Portal for Political Science, January 1, 2006. http://pw-portal.de/rezension/6529-das-europaeische-geschichtsbuch_8849 , accessed on June 29, 2019.