This resource offers materials on the shared history of Europe’s member states, highlighting issues shared across the borders of Europe, including those of landscape, climate, traditions and customs, habits and lifestyles. It aims to emphasise shared values in the European diversity of perspective in order to encourage consensus and debate, mutual respect, understanding, social cohesion and responsibility as well as solidarity in a multicultural world.

The materials and discussions cover essential parts of European history, including the Industrial Revolution, the development of Education and Human Rights, the impact on European Art and Europe in the context of world history. These four main themes form the structure of the book, each containing a number of teaching units for primary and secondary history classrooms. In the first part of the book there are thematic overviews on the four main topics as well as links and summaries for numerous teaching units accompanying each thematic unit.

The resource can be used during initial training as well as in-service training of history teachers working in primary, secondary and upper-secondary schools. It is also useful for direct classroom use by the individual teacher. In addition, it can be used within the context of museum didactics as well as European NGO training.

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To cite this resource: The Secretariat of the Council of Europe (2014). Shared histories for a Europe without dividing lines [PDF]. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Editions.