John Rodden is Adjunct Professor in Speech Communication at the University of Texas. His books include Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse: A History of Eastern German Education, 1945–1995 (2002) and Performing the Literary Interview: How Writers Craft Their Public Selves (2001).

• Contents Foreword by Wolfgang StraussAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsGlossaryPrologue: Creating Young ComradesIntroduction: Ideology as Core CurriculumPart I Of Politics and Letters—and Numbers1.German for the East Germans: Language and Literature2.Terra Verde, Terra Rosso: Geography3.My Country, Left or Wrong? Civics4.Progressive Lessons of the Past: History5.Socialist Science: Biology, Chemistry, MathematicsPart II The Voices Behind the Page: Conversations about Post-Communist Education and Eastern German Life with Faculty and Students6.Arts and Humanities7.Physical and Social Sciences8.Education for Tolerance: Of Ideology, Identity, and Intolerance, or Among (German and Jewish) SchoolchildrenEpilogue: Curriculum Without a CoreNotesBibliographyIndex

“Put Rodden's new book on education in East Germany, Textbook Reds, next to his earlier one, Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse, and you have all the library you need to understand the dynamics of the former German Democratic Republic, in every aspect, from its beginning to its end. Not even more specialized studies range as far and probe as deep, thanks to Rodden's astonishing versatility as a historian. He moves deftly from analysis of textbooks to personal interviews, from the teaching of the high-school disciplines to the corruption and the cult of personality in the GDR. The interviews bring an immediacy one seldom finds in a book so scholarly, and the scholarship is thorough across a spectrum of approaches. Make no mistake—using the educational system as a starting point does not narrow the perspective but opens out whole horizons instead. Comprehensive, brilliant, and vivid.”—Vincent Kling, La Salle University

John Rodden is Adjunct Professor in Speech Communication at the University of Texas. His books include Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse: A History of Eastern German Education, 1945–1995 (2002) and Performing the Literary Interview: How Writers Craft Their Public Selves (2001).

• Contents Foreword by Wolfgang StraussAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsGlossaryPrologue: Creating Young ComradesIntroduction: Ideology as Core CurriculumPart I Of Politics and Letters—and Numbers1.German for the East Germans: Language and Literature2.Terra Verde, Terra Rosso: Geography3.My Country, Left or Wrong? Civics4.Progressive Lessons of the Past: History5.Socialist Science: Biology, Chemistry, MathematicsPart II The Voices Behind the Page: Conversations about Post-Communist Education and Eastern German Life with Faculty and Students6.Arts and Humanities7.Physical and Social Sciences8.Education for Tolerance: Of Ideology, Identity, and Intolerance, or Among (German and Jewish) SchoolchildrenEpilogue: Curriculum Without a CoreNotesBibliographyIndex

“Put Rodden's new book on education in East Germany, Textbook Reds, next to his earlier one, Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse, and you have all the library you need to understand the dynamics of the former German Democratic Republic, in every aspect, from its beginning to its end. Not even more specialized studies range as far and probe as deep, thanks to Rodden's astonishing versatility as a historian. He moves deftly from analysis of textbooks to personal interviews, from the teaching of the high-school disciplines to the corruption and the cult of personality in the GDR. The interviews bring an immediacy one seldom finds in a book so scholarly, and the scholarship is thorough across a spectrum of approaches. Make no mistake—using the educational system as a starting point does not narrow the perspective but opens out whole horizons instead. Comprehensive, brilliant, and vivid.”—Vincent Kling, La Salle University

John Rodden is Adjunct Professor in Speech Communication at the University of Texas. His books include Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse: A History of Eastern German Education, 1945–1995 (2002) and Performing the Literary Interview: How Writers Craft Their Public Selves (2001).

• Contents Foreword by Wolfgang StraussAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsGlossaryPrologue: Creating Young ComradesIntroduction: Ideology as Core CurriculumPart I Of Politics and Letters—and Numbers1.German for the East Germans: Language and Literature2.Terra Verde, Terra Rosso: Geography3.My Country, Left or Wrong? Civics4.Progressive Lessons of the Past: History5.Socialist Science: Biology, Chemistry, MathematicsPart II The Voices Behind the Page: Conversations about Post-Communist Education and Eastern German Life with Faculty and Students6.Arts and Humanities7.Physical and Social Sciences8.Education for Tolerance: Of Ideology, Identity, and Intolerance, or Among (German and Jewish) SchoolchildrenEpilogue: Curriculum Without a CoreNotesBibliographyIndex

“Put Rodden's new book on education in East Germany, Textbook Reds, next to his earlier one, Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse, and you have all the library you need to understand the dynamics of the former German Democratic Republic, in every aspect, from its beginning to its end. Not even more specialized studies range as far and probe as deep, thanks to Rodden's astonishing versatility as a historian. He moves deftly from analysis of textbooks to personal interviews, from the teaching of the high-school disciplines to the corruption and the cult of personality in the GDR. The interviews bring an immediacy one seldom finds in a book so scholarly, and the scholarship is thorough across a spectrum of approaches. Make no mistake—using the educational system as a starting point does not narrow the perspective but opens out whole horizons instead. Comprehensive, brilliant, and vivid.”—Vincent Kling, La Salle University