I'm doing a research project on World War One, and a sub-question I'm exploring is the changing opinions of blame for the war. I'm wondering if I could find history textbooks from both Germany and the United States from around 1925, 1955, 1985, and current textbooks to compare them and their verbiage.
Local libraries aren't any help, as they don't buy textbooks. My only current lead is Archive.org, and their assortment of digitized textbooks. I have found a United States History textbook from 1921, with much text on the Great War. Any help would be appreciated!
Never thought I would find a question on this topic.
Your best bet is interlibrary loan. I ended up driving to a number of university libraries until I hit upon that.
Also, I might focus on either a specific publishing company or a specific state. I, for example, worked with Texas textbooks since Texas has a great deal of influence on what is written. You can find the books adopted by Texas online at the University of Texas' library.
As a side note, remember that history textbooks are not a good source on what historians were saying about the war. They are a good source for what authors, publishing companies, interest groups, etc. choose to teach students. In other words, they tell us what society (or parts of it) wants to say about itself.
If you are interested in any more help, please let me know.
Like /u/Kugelfang52 said, I also recommend focusing on specific publishers. And if possible, contact any still existent ones and see if they have reserve/stock copies of any older textbooks they printed. Perhaps even school administrations may also be able to lend a hand as well, as maybe there are warehoused copies as well?