Identification of history textbooks from 1940s to current

berryredjen

Hi everyone,

I am working on a project at the moment where I am attempting to identify the 3 most widely used textbooks for 14-18 years olds for each decade from 1940 to current. I have been in touch with the History Teachers' Association, Department of Education (and associated departments!), and textbook publishers. Basically my efforts have been fairly fruitless thus far. There is no list of recommended texts as such, as teachers are afforded the option to use their own discretion in choosing texts for history courses. Therefore, I am hoping that perhaps some of you might be able to provide details of which texts you might have used yourself in school, your parents, or any of the above. Any help or suggestions of other avenues I might try for this information would be gratefully received!

Thanks!
Jen

Jellybaby1

I may possibly still have a copy somewhere in the piles and piles. Will see if I can find it.

berryredjen

That would be fantastic, thank you!

Powerhouse

berryredjen wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I am working on a project at the moment where I am attempting to identify the 3 most widely used textbooks for 14-18 years olds for each decade from 1940 to current. I have been in touch with the History Teachers' Association, Department of Education (and associated departments!), and textbook publishers. Basically my efforts have been fairly fruitless thus far. There is no list of recommended texts as such, as teachers are afforded the option to use their own discretion in choosing texts for history courses. Therefore, I am hoping that perhaps some of you might be able to provide details of which texts you might have used yourself in school, your parents, or any of the above. Any help or suggestions of other avenues I might try for this information would be gratefully received!

Thanks!
Jen

I'd say you'll find some of this this already covered in this publication (the bibliography might be particularly interesting in that respect):

Teaching Irish Independence: History in Irish Schools, 1922-72, by John O'Callaghan. (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009)

The more recent stuff should be easier. to source. Certainly Mark Tierney's work on Ireland and Europe (Both 'Since 1870') would have been standard in my school at senior level.

berryredjen

Powerhouse wrote: »

I'd say you'll find some of this this already covered in this publication (the bibliography might be particularly interesting in that respect):

Teaching Irish Independence: History in Irish Schools, 1922-72, by John O'Callaghan. (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009)

The more recent stuff should be easier. to source. Certainly Mark Tierney's work on Ireland and Europe (Both 'Since 1870') would have been standard in my school at senior level.

Thank you very much for that reference, I will certainly look through the bibliography. I am tracking coverage of European unification in the texts as part of a much larger project, but identifying the most commonly used texts teaching "modern" Irish history has turned out to be quite difficult. Again, much appreciated, thank you!

Bicycle

I was in secondary school from 1975 - 1981. We used Conquest and Colonisation for Inter Cert along with Stair na hEorpa (I was in a gaelscoil). I think there was another book for Irish history but I was a bit disengaged!!

berryredjen

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I may possibly still have a copy somewhere in the piles and piles. Will see if I can find it.

Hi Jellybaby, just following up to see if you had managed to locate the source you were after? Many thanks!

Jellybaby1

Sorry for keeping you waiting. Haven't turned it up yet. Tons of books here to sift through, will get back to you asap. I think it was in National School though. I never got as far as Secondary. I was earning my bread and butter by that age.

berryredjen

No problem, I appreciate you taking the time on this

spurious

Dublin secondary girls' school 1975-1980 - I only took History to the Inter..

We used
'Ireland Two' by P. Holohan
'Ireland Three' by M.E. Collins
'Life and People of the Middle Ages' by Eibhlin Breathnach (Gill and MacMillan) and
'Europe 1763 - 1970- by H. Gough.

Jellybaby1

Well berryredjen, here I am back, and blushing, having searched high and low for that history book. I did find the book I was looking for but it turns out not to be history after all. It was Intermediate Certificate Poetry by H. L. Doak and it wasn't even mine as I never did Inter cert. A piece of homework inserted was dated 1967, and I remember I bought it in a second-hand book shop years ago. Sorry to disappoint you. On the plus side, I found lots of stuff I had forgotten I even had, hiding amongst my 'Little Women', 'Heidi', and 'What Katy Did' books. But of course this is useless to you.