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“The Triumph of the West”: American Education and the Narrative of Decolonization, 1930–1965

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2018

Stephen Jackson
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Abstract

This article examines representations of imperialism, anti-colonial nationalism, and decolonization in US textbooks for American and World History courses between 1930 and 1965. Broadly speaking, 1930s and early 1940s texts lauded imperialism and associated European colonialism with American imperialist activities. Authors extolled the benefits for colonial peoples, including literacy, good government, and peace, and anti-colonial nationalists were caricatured as irrational and ungrateful. US global engagement during and after World War II gradually changed the narrative, particularly following Philippine independence in 1946, as texts subsequently portrayed the US as an enlightened decolonizer. Postwar textbooks tended to argue that nationalism was a product of Western ideas and that anti-colonial nationalism was a triumph for Western civilization. While constructing this narrative of the spread of Western values, textbook authors largely marginalized colonial actors, promoted unflattering and stereotyped views of Africans and Asians, and de-emphasized the extreme violence inherent in the decolonization process.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , November 2018 , pp. 567 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © History of Education Society 2018 

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References

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2 Sixteen of these texts were written between 1930 and 1945 and twenty-seven were written between 1946 and 1965. See the appendix for information on the textbooks used in this study.

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