New images for new students: A qualitative longitudinal analysis of colonial images in Italian history textbooks from 1950 to present

School teaching plays a crucial role in educating young generations about their national past, especially when the in-group historical information is silenced in societal discourse. In Italy, the national colonial past is still shrouded in a persistent social amnesia. In such a context, our study aims to observe changes in the images inserted in 21 Italian history textbooks, used from 1950 to the present day, to accompany narratives of Fascist colonial episodes. The results of this qualitative longitudinal analysis of images spanning 8 decades reveal a gradual increase in their quantity and typology. Three major periods can be identified: a period marked by the transition from the absence of images to the first appearance of geo-historical maps, from 1950 to the end of the 1980s; a second period from the 1990s onward, when documentary photographs-including shocking snapshots depicting the colonial violence committed by the Italian Army-as well as magazine covers and newspaper front pages were introduced; and a third one, from the 2000s onward, in which explicit Fascist propaganda images appeared. Interpreted through the theoretical framework on reconciliation processes, these results show how changes over time in terms of the type of images used in history textbooks can provide insightful suggestions for the still ongoing societal elaboration of Italian colonial history.