ABSTRACT
History textbooks were the most heavily loaded with propaganda of all the primary school textbooks in the People's Poland. The history of the revolutionary movement, the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc occupied a great deal of space in textbooks. Jesuit education was completely condemned in the textbooks. It was described as concentrated on the memorization of incomprehensible, and nonsensical Latin texts, imposing corporal punishment, boredom and ignorance. Jesuit schools were said to encourage intolerance, blind obedience to the Catholic Church and persecution of heathens. This chapter presents the general trends of propaganda in history textbooks. A detailed analysis of these books would overwhelm this study. There are separate monographs dealing with some individual aspects and periods, such as representations of Germany and Russia in the textbooks, the indoctrinating role of history at schools in the Stalinist times, or the organizational aspects of history education in post-war Poland.
