The concept of “race” is a recurrent concept in 20th century textbooks, despite the fact that scientific studies exposed the fallacies of the concept as early as in the 1940s. Since 1950, UNESCO has repeatedly issued statements and declarations denouncing the use of the concept. Here, an example of a geography textbook for elementary and middle schools in Haiti.

Excerpts from a geography book from the FRG on peoples’ lifestyles in Asia. European textbooks tend to make the judgment that peoples from other part of the world should quite naturally adapt a western lifestyle.

Some textbooks also promote the peaceful coexistence between people of different origins by showing families and children of different skin-color or traditional dress, often in a folkloristic or stereotypical manner. Here are examples from two Italian reading books.

In the USA, the history of migration is an integral part of the national identity and often depicted as such in American history textbooks.

This is also an interpretation that can be found in textbooks from other countries (here, an example from the Federal German Republic)

“One calls America the ‘melting pot’ of peoples. This picture shows you, what this expression means. Write down the single peoples and indicate next to it, what particular successes they have contributed to the creation of the United States!”

While German and English textbooks tend to speak of the “Völkerwanderung” (“migration of peoples”) or “migration period” Italian and French textbooks refer to the more negatively connoted “barbarian invasions.” Here, a map from an Italian middle school textbook of history and civic education.

There a different theories about the origins of the over 440 Bantu languages in Sub-Saharan Africa, but all relate to some sort of migration, through nomadic agriculture or conquest. Here is a map showing Bantu expansion from a history textbook from Ivory Coast.

A chapter on the British Commonwealth dealing with the question of emigration to the Dominions in a colonial context: “If it had not been for emigration from the homeland, these Colonies, peopled by Britons overseas, could never have grown up as they have done. In the early days of their growth, the Colonies wanted as many immigrants as they could get from the homeland because not enough children were born in them to give them all the labour and help that they required. But nowadays most of the Dominions are in danger of having more immigrants than they want, or of getting what they would regard as an undesirable type of settler. To avoid these dangers immigration is now carefully regulated.”

Through the depiction of several individual fates, this Danish textbook from 1960s discusses the socio-economic conditions that motivate emigrations in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. It was conceived for use in history classes from 6^th to 9^th grade.

Mexican geography textbook for use in primary elementary education (Fourth year).The chapter on display shows the ethnic distribution of the population in the late 1940s. A distinction is being made between Native Americans (“indios”), inhabitants of European descent (“blancos”), mixed race population (“mestizos”) and African Americans (“negros y otros”).

Norwegian textbook for primary school dealing in a literary and playful manner with the “migration period” (4th-6th centuries AD), which describes movements of Germanic, Hunnic, Slavic and other peoples into the declining Roman Empire.

Chapter on Central Asia in a book prepared as part of a series of Geography books for school use. The purpose of the book was to inform British pupils about foreign countries and their populations: “By land and sea and air the peoples of the world are drawing closer: at least, we need not meet them as utter strangers,” the authors write in the foreword. The pages in question describe the lifestyle of the “wandering kirghiz,” who move around in harmony with the seasons, although “the Russians [were] now trying to turn these nomads into settled farmers.”

Jordanian history textbook for 6th grade students providing information on the historical background of the area of what constitutes today Palestine and the origin of the people who lived there through the ages. Ancient migration is used as an argument to justify the rightful claim to the land. It reads, for example, that the earliest inhabitants were “ ‘Canaanites,’ Arab tribes who fled the Arabian Peninsula and settled in Palestine about 5000 years ago.”

Cover of an Austrian lexicon from the 1950s for children aged 5 or older depicting children of different skin-color and traditional dress holding hand. Children were encouraged to read the book on their own, following Pestalozzi’s dictum of “help for self-help.”

English language textbook prepared for the Community Action Program of the Office of Economic Opportunity. The latter was the agency responsible for administering most of the “War on Poverty” programs created as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” programs.

Italian textbook to practice reading in the fourth grade of the second cycle. The pages on display combine pacifist calls to develop sense of belonging to the world as a whole with more classical patriotism for the fatherland.

Atlas in Hebrew retracing the history of migration of the Jewish Diaspora. Dispersion and exile (galut) are constitutive elements of Jewish identity.

Sixth grade geography textbook for use in French African territories and Madagascar. In this chapter on “human races,” the author asks the student to identify members of three different “races” in the pictures, and observes: “In any case, the distribution of the races has been modified by migrations which dispersed them on all continents.”

History atlases for use in school often show the occurrence of migratory phenomena following major conflicts and the shifting of borders. The map on the lower left of page 153 shows the forceful displacement as part of the population exchange between Turkey and Greece after the First World War.