Commercialised History: Popular History Magazines in Europe

This volume of essays is the result of the EU project «EHISTO», which dealt with the mediation of history in popular history magazines and explored how history in the commercialised mass media can be used in history teaching in order to develop the media literacy and the transcultural competences of young people. The volume offers articles which for the first time address the phenomenon of popular history magazines in Europe and their mediating strategies in a foundational way. The articles are intended as introductory material for teachers and student teachers. The topic also offers an innovative approach in terms of making possible a European cross-country comparison, in which results based on qualitative and quantitative methods are presented, related to the content focus areas profiled in the national magazines.

Susanne Popp is professor of History Didactics at the University of Augsburg (Germany) and chairwoman of the International Society for History Didactics. Together with Jutta Schumann, who works as a research associate at the University of Augsburg, and Miriam Hannig, she managed the EU project EHISTO (2012-2014).

Contents: Susanne Popp/Jutta Schumann/Miriam Hannig: Preface - Jutta Schumann/Susanne Popp/Miriam Hannig: EHISTO - European History Crossroads as pathways to intercultural and media education - Report about the EU-project - Susanne Popp: Popular history magazines between transmission of knowledge and entertainment - some theoretical remarks - Fabio Crivellari: Bygone news. The journalistic formatting of history - Stephan Jaeger: Popular historical writing from a narratological perspective - Susanne Kinnebrock: Why Napoleon is exciting time after time: media logics and history - Manuela Glaser: Popular knowledge communication in history magazines from a receptional psychology point of view - Michael Wobring: The Function and use of image documents in German popular history magazines - Marianne Sjöland: The use of history in popular history magazines. A theoretical approach - Claudius Springkart: Popular history magazines in Germany - Terry Haydn: History magazines in the UK - Monika Vinterek: The use of powerful men, naked women and war to sell. Popular history magazines in Sweden - Katja Gorbahn: Perpetrators, victims, heroes - the Second World War and National Socialism in Danish history magazines - Miriam Hannig: Popular history magazines between information and entertainment. A qualitative study on the expectations of consumers - Terry Haydn: A case study of the use of popular history magazines in history teaching in England.