Contemporary History in High Schools

Itamar Freitas

Abstract: This article discusses Contemporary History (CH) during the formation of students in high school years. The objects are the assigned curricula for high schools in Brazil, USA and France in the last two decades. By using comparative history strategies, we examine how present time is configured in different cultures, the ways in which the State appropriates itself of this period’s historical representation in school programs and standards, the historians’ degree of intervention (and that of CH in particular) in the elaboration of curricula for the teaching of History and the representations these countries make of each other on the theme of the 20th and 21st
Keywords: Brazil, contemporary history, France, teaching of history, USA