The “Storms and Turns of History”: Emigration Narratives in the 20th Century in Polish and Hungarian History Textbooks

Abstract

History textbooks are special sources, reflecting on the era in which they were published. They play a role in formation of national identity and shape students’ perception of the past and their relation to the present. Central Europe’s recent media have given considerable attention to emigration. How do history textbooks narrate migration? This paper explores how the current history textbooks in Hungary and Poland narrate mass emigration. Findings reveal several reasons for the mass migration named by the textbooks, which include a desire for improved economic and living conditions. The treatment of emigrant groups as transnational populations in both Hungarian and Polish narratives suggests that they are separated from their home country’s national history and in a way ‘step out’ of its flow – however, the narratives appearing in the Polish textbooks deal with the overall neglected groups in greater depth. In addition, this research explores how these textbooks treat these transnational populations.