Myths and Legends: Modern History and Nationalistic Propaganda in Egyptian Textbooks
Myths and Legends: Modern History and Nationalistic Propaganda in Egyptian Textbooks

Author(s): Patrycja Sasnal
Contributor(s): Brien Barnett (Editor), Dorota Dołęgowska (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, Social Sciences, Education, Political Theory, Sociology, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), Special Historiographies:, Government/Political systems, Politics and society, State/Government and Education, Nationalism Studies, Historical revisionism, Sociology of Politics, Sociology of Education, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: Myths and legends; modern history; nationalistic propaganda; Egypt; education; Egyptian textbooks; democracy; education system;
Summary/Abstract: In 2011, Egyptians overthrew their authoritarian president, Hosni Mubarak. Since then, tumultuous shifts in civilian rule and military interventions have marred Egypt’s transition to democracy, prompting speculation about the potential for reversion to an authoritarian system. How revolutionary was Egypt’s change and how much of it remains? Among the most basic barometers of overall systemic revolutionary change is the education system and, more precisely, the way history is taught. “History is written by the victors,” Winston Churchill was to have remarked, and so history is often rewritten after a revolution. The victors usually want the old narrative removed and their own, new vision presented in textbooks, as they are understood to shape young people’s understanding of the past and present, thus they are conducive to the survival of the new regime.

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