Looking at the dictatorship from the uses of History: approach to school textbooks of National History for sixth year of primary education

This article is focused on the analysis of the historical narrative taught to students during the last dictatorial government in Uruguay, through the official textbooks of National History for Primary School, between 1980-1984. Assuming that during the dictatorial period -within the framework of its foundational project-it was made a political use of the past, this paper explores the characteristics of such use and its relationship with the main features of the regime, through the study of five thematic units, related to different periods or issues of Uruguayan history. The pro-government speech on the past taught in classrooms shows then a combination of traditional historiographical trends with conceptual innovations based on the principles of the National Security Doctrine, a combination of little scientific rigour which clearly aimed at legitimating the regime and laying its foundations.