Abstract

VARGAS ESCOBAR, Natalia. The Nation, a Category for Analyzing the Changes in Projects of State Integration: The Case of Free Textbooks. Sociológica (Méx.) [online]. 2011, vol.26, n.74, pp.109-145. ISSN 2007-8358.

This article proposes a re-conceptualization of the category "nation" to affirm it as a concept for sociological explanation, framed among the terms in which historic models of integration of the whole of society established by the operation of a state are defined. The author analyzes the version of the Mexican nation presented in three free national history textbooks published under three different federal administrations. Her aim is to identify the divergences and overlaps in the texts to trace state actions oriented to updating the terms in which membership in the political community is defined.

Keywords : nation-state; political integration; primary education; textbooks; history of Mexico.