Detta examensarbete undersöker genom analys innehållet i ett urval av samtida läseböcker i svenska för lågstadiet. Studiens syfte är att undersöka om, och i så fall på vilket sätt de förändringar som skedde i det svenska samhället under 1970-talet förmedlades. Det övergripande styrdokumentet för grundskolan under denna period var Läroplan för grundskolan (Lgr69). Studien innehåller även forskningsbakgrund kring läseböcker från 1970-talet samt en tillbakablick över den svenska läsebokens historia. Genom text- och bildanalyser av läseböcker som använts i svenskundervisning under 1970-talet visar studien att det finns övergripande likheter i deras innehåll. Dock finns det skillnader mellan böckerna vad gäller struktur, disposition och val av illustrationer. Samtliga läseböcker i studien innehåller en blandning av traditionella teman för läsinlärning, blandat med texter som speglar ett samhälle med för tiden nya värderingar och strukturer.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the preparation of total and civil defense education in schools in the 1970s to gain insight into how the school looked and pondered the complicated world that existed outside the school's doors. By using the concepts of welfare state, welfare and civil defense culture, I have studied relevant materials to get answers to questions treating the total and civil education in schools after Lgr69, the way the state sees the subject and if it is possible to detect a civil defense culture in schools and if so, how it will be expressed.     The results show that the state emphasized education as incredibly important because knowledge of how to act in a crisis or war could be extremely crucial for the individuals and their survival. The education was so important that it got a role as a main factor in Lgr69. But even if the education was important the teachers had huge problems with the schedule and many teachers couldn´t educate all facts because they didn´t have enough time. To deal with the problem many schools learn about total and civil defense on outdoors days or sports days. The students were generally in favor of the subject but some thought it was too much fact to learn in so little time.    The question about the civil defense in school is a question that doesn´t have an obvious answer but can be seen from different perspectives. Since the total and civil defense education was a main factor in Lgr69 it appears obvious that there was a civil defense culture and the constant threat of war led to a way of thinking and acting, even in school. One purpose of the education was to see the total and civil defense as a social function in a larger context, and that goal could be related to the country's goal to build a successful welfare society that would be characterized by security - economically, politically and socially.     Another factor that points to the existence of a civil defense culture was the opportunity for the students to practice on different parts of civil defense such as self protection and accident care. The idea of a non-existent civil defense culture in schools existed because the obvious time constraints and, to some extent, nonchalance that existed among the Swedish population. Furthermore, the non-existent idea strengthens when Lgr69 itself (and even other textbooks) emphasize that all parts of the total and civil education didn´t need to be examined, it depended on the time that was available.