Writing Syrian History while Propagating Arab Nationalism. Textbooks about Modern Arab History under Hafiz and Bashar al-Asad

Abstract

This article argues that Syrian history textbooks promote the formation of Syrian national identity although their explicit objective is to propagate Arab nationalism. The authors’ attempt to construct the history of an imagined Arab nation encompassing the whole of the Arab world in fact tells the story of different nation-states. Syrian students are therefore confronted with rival geographical spheres of national imagination. Changes in the new textbooks under Bashar al-Asad1 reveal increased Syrian patriotism, a will to comply with globalization, and attempts to maintain Arab nationalism.