The objective of this paper is to investigate how the image of the First World War and its background have been projected in teaching materials from the 1950s as well as in a number of following decades until today. Vital to this research are Holmén's arguments that textbooks traditionally had a great impact on education in Swedish schools and almost acted as an unofficial curriculum. Furthermore Holmén believes that learning materials reflect society's view of history.
This research focusses on the agents in each examined decade. By using the developed method, the key player is put in a cause and effect correlation, where the aim is to ascertain the agent’s impact - or as in the investigation termed verkanseffekt - on the outbreak of the First World War. This verkanseffekt is then classified as either having a high or a low level of impact.
The investigation shows that through the various decades, starting from 1950 to the present, a change of agent focus has taken place. First, some agents have been phased out in favor of different agents. In other cases, agents were reformulated in new terms, even though it is clear that it is the same agent who was dealt with. Furthermore, it appears that some agents emerge repeatedly, however, those agent´s impact on the war has changed. Mainly the reason for this is that different structures surrounding the various agents are interpreted differently at different times in history.