Manufacturing Coherence: How American Textbooks Incorporate Diverse Perspectives on the Origins of the Cold War

Abstract

Fischer uses three US textbooks, each published by one of the major American textbook publishers between 2007 and 2012, to examine how they present the origins of the Cold War. The chapter explores whether these textbooks incorporate revisionist and post-revisionist interpretations of the issue or if they prioritise traditionalist frameworks. Fischer identifies progressive echoes in these textbooks which question ‘master narratives’ and ambivalence over the roles of the USA and the USSR in the Cold War in order to understand how these are perceived today. The chapter explores how different publishers do this through not only the language they employ, but also through the physical layout of each page, which emphasises and relegates different elements.