This study is to examine the reception of the history textbook about the alteration of the historiography of the Vichy Regime. After the Liberation, the history textbook did not refer in detail to the Vichy Regime. Simply, it considered the Vichy Regi...
This study is to examine the reception of the history textbook about the alteration of the historiography of the Vichy Regime. After the Liberation, the history textbook did not refer in detail to the Vichy Regime. Simply, it considered the Vichy Regime as the puppet regime under the Occupation of Germany. However, the studies of the Vichy Regime, since the 1970's, showed that it was legitimate and voluntary to collaborate with Germany. The Vichy Regime was given official approval from the Parliament. The Parliament gave full power to Philippe Pétain, President of the Vichy Regime. Thus, the Vichy Regime isn't the history of the German Occupation, but that of France. It isn't an isolated section, but central to the contemporary history of France. At this point, this study shows how Middle School of “History and Geography textbooks” reflect the recent study of the Vichy Regime, according to the period between the 1970's and the 1990's. However, the standard of the analysis about the contents of these textbooks is not about the change of the historiography of the education, not on those of the Vichy Regime, but on those of the French-German recommendations. After the French-German Council in 1988, the content of the Vichy Regime and of the National Socialist Party first appeared in the French-German recommendation. It is remarkable that France and Germany both spoke of the “Black Past”covered in the history textbook revision. The change of the historiography of the Vichy Regime and the National Socialist Party came from the recommendation of the French-German Council. So, it is possible to examine how the clauses of the recommendations of 1988 that the French Council requested for the history textbooks of Germany, is reflected in the “History and Geography textbooks” of the French Middle School. The analysis of the history textbook of France has two directions : the reception of its titles about the Second World War, and those of its content about the Vichy Regime. The title “The Vichy Regime”didn't exist as a big heading in the 1970' textbooks, but exist clearly in the 1990' textbooks. The appearance of the titles, “the Vichy of France”, “France in War”, means that not only De Gaulle's Regime, but the Vichy Regime is included in the contemporary history of France. It is possible to say that this title related to the change of the historiography of the Vichy regime. The content in the 1970's and the 1990's history textbooks partly reflect the clauses of the recommendation of 1988. The common content between in the 1970's and 1990's textbooks mention that the Vichy Regime is legitimate(the first clause of the recommendation of 1988). The content of 1970's textbooks mention that the Vichy Regime of Philippe Pétain was good for protecting France against Germany and that Pierre Laval tried collaboration with Germany(the second and third clauses). On the contrary, these points were not reflected in the content of the 1990's textbooks. The latter mentions that the Vichy Regime of Philippe Pétain collaborated actively with Germany, like Pierre Laval, and that many of the French hardly took part in the Resistance of 1943, not in the beginning of the Vichy Regime. These points shows that the recommendation of 1988 did not get the changes in the recent historiography of the Vichy Regime of the 1990's. Thus it might be possible to, henceforth, revise the recommendations by the French-Germany Council, according to the recent historiography of the Vichy Regime. Finally, the history textbook reflect the historiography of the Vichy Regime since 1970's and the latter bring the revision of the recommendations between the history textbooks of France and Germany. This relation show the importance of the change of the historial conscience that makes a self-reflection of the history of the“Black Past” covered, for examples the Vichy Regime. This conscience would be basic for the process of the Fre