The authors of this work reviewed 17 textbooks which deal with the period of the Homeland War. In deconstructing their content, they for the most part followed the guidelines laid out in the Nastavni plan i program za povijest za osnovne i srednje skole (Teaching plan and program for history in primary and secondary schools) because this is obligatory information for the authors of textbooks. After a review of the textbooks, the authors concluded that there is no great difference in the treatment of the period of the Homeland War between the textbooks for primary and secondary schools. Upon completion of primary school education, students have acquired a basic knowledge of the Homeland War: they know how, when and why the war was fought, who was the victim, who was the agressor, what the consequences of the war were, what the international situation of Croatia was during the war, they are acquainted with the two military operations which liberated Croatian territory, and sometimes with the previous operations and war in Bosnia and Hercegovina as well. The majority of textbooks are augemented with orginal source texts and relatively well supplemented with pictorial materials which allows students to get a better picture of the Homeland War. In textbooks aimed at secondary trade school programs the information is more detailed than in the textbooks for primary schools, and the dates of all important operations are presented, along with a treatment of the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The best knowledge of the Homeland War is obtained by graduates of gymnasia. They are acquainted in depth with the political conditions in the former Yugoslavia before the beginning of the war and with the events preceded by Serbian agression. They can follow the progress of the war on the Croatian battlefields, they are made aware of all the important operations of the Croatian Army and with the consequences of Serbian agression, the material destruction and the suffering of the people. The textbooks used in gymnasia gives a lot of scope to the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina, and this war is linked to the war in Croatia. The concluding chapters are in large part devoted to studying the International Court for War Crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. In conclusion, it can be said that the Homeland war in the majority of Croatian textbooks is well and correctly represented. Looked at objectively, the criticisms levelled at Croatian textbooks are hard to substantiate. The sensitivity of this issue and the complexity of the events themselves must of course be kept in mind, and so also the special relationship to this part of Croatian history; nonetheless, historians and professors, who are the authors of these textbooks, are responsible for transmitting this knowledge to students and bringing it closer to them. Students must get an insight into the flow of historical events as well as come to understand the political conditions which preceded the Homeland War, its long-term as well as immediate causes, in order to obtain an objective view of this period in Croatian history.
