Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States (Asia & the Pacific) [Paperback]

Laura Elizabeth Hein (Editor), Mark Selden (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

...excellent scholarship, clear writing and eye-opening methodology. This book has a powerful message to convey. -- Education about Asia, Spring 2002 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: East Gate Book (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765604477
• ISBN-13: 978-0765604477
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > History > Historical Study > Historiography

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required for High School/College Hist teachers, May 10, 2001

By 

Caryn W. Stedman (Hartford, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States (Asia & the Pacific) (Paperback)

This is the best collection of essays on the "uses" of history and construction of national "memories" that I have read. This should be required reading in every high school social studies/history teacher certification program, and should be read by all who want to enter the debate on standardized testing and prescriptive curriculum content. I have used selections of it in my college level Japanese history course, my college level world history courses, and recommend it to my colleagues and also to the many high school teachers with whom I work. It shares valuable lessons on the manipulation of history for nationalistic and/or militaristic purposes. It should also be read by educational, defense, and foreign policy-makers as well as journalists who often seem too quick to pass on widely held myths as truths. Alas, I am afraid that many in these positions are more comfortable with the myths.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, challenging, highly informative essays, January 10, 2001

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States (Asia & the Pacific) (Paperback)

Censoring History: Citizenship And Memory In Japan, Germany, And The United States is a fascinating, challenging, well written and highly informative anthology of essays about how history is almost inevitably distorted and revised by subsequent generations to meet their social, political and cultural needs and myths -- and how such unwarranted revisions must be countered with an coherent understanding of the politics of education, from the writing and publication of textbooks to curriculum development and classroom instruction practices. Censoring History is critically important reading for anyone seeking to understand how and why the needs of nationalism would and do distort the recording and transmission of history, and the peril future generations are put to as those who do not know their history are so often doomed to repeat it in an age where nuclear war could end civilization and even the human race.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Japanvisitor.com Review, June 4, 2003

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Soccerphile.com (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States (Asia & the Pacific) (Paperback)

The premise of this book is that "schools and textbooks are important vehicles through which contemporary societies transmit ideas of citizenship and both the idealized past and the promised future". The 10 chapters look at how World War II and the Vietnam War are represented in school history textbooks in the 3 countries. Almost 50 years after the end of the war, controversy over Japanese text books continues to rage, and this book is useful to put that into some sort of perspective. Of the 10 chapters, 6 deal with Japan, including a chapter with all the details of Saburo Ienaga's famous textbook lawsuits against the Japanese government, and a couple of chapters on joint history projects between Japan and Korea, and Japan and the U.S. The common conception is that Japan has not yet faced up to its wartime past, and while I agree, after reading this book my view has been somewhat softened. Compared with the U.S.A., Japan has done more to teach its young about the negative side of its wars. If you enjoyed reading Ian Buruma's Wages of Guilt, then you will enjoy this book.