Modern Greek History Textbooks: Another Approach to Social Aspects of the Asia Minor Disaster.

Abstract

The events of the Asia Minor Disaster have become a corner stone of Modern Greek historiography, while the social repercussions are neglected. This paper proposes to examine a sample of Modern Greek history textbooks regarding the information they provide on the social aspects of the settlement and assimilation of refugees in Greece post-1922. Since these textbooks have very little on this issue, possible reasons for this are offered, as is a feasible approach to teaching this topic in history textbooks. The overall aim of the paper is to open a discussion on the possibility of including this social history in Greece’s official history textbooks, through the addition of oral testimonies and fiction according to specific selective criteria.