ABSTRACT
The history textbooks primarily stressed political, military, and dynastic issues, laced with nineteenth-century romantic nationalism aimed at evoking pride in the accomplishments and legacy of the past. The educational system had to reflect public education condition in teaching and textbook contents. In Croatia, the minister commissioned specific authors to prepare the textbooks for the elementary schools. The chapter examines over 300 textbooks from all three South Slavic lands. By the mid-nineteenth century, Serbian literature ceased to be regional and became universal, Serbian, for all the Orthodox believers and for one segment of the Catholics and Muslims in our nation. Vjekoslav Klaic, also asserted that the Bosnian Muslims were Croats, because All Bosnians, regardless of their religion are sons of a Croatian mother. The education of Serbian and Croatian students was confined to the elementary and secondary schools, while only a select few attended the university. This analysis stresses Serbian and Croatian textbooks, with only a few comments about Slovenian works.
