The public debates on history education that occurred in many countries over the past decades have given rise to the idea that people live in an age of "history wars". While these wars are primarily fought on a national level, they are increasingly looked at as a global phenomenon. In most cases, they are the expression of tensions between the field of education, the world of politics and the guild of academic historians. Each of the three groups translates its own ambitions and ideals into mainly negative perceptions of the others. History education professionals, to start with this group, tend to cultivate an image of academic historians as inhabitants of an ivory tower, eager to theorise and enjoy intellectual deconstruction rather than to formulate viable answers to actual educational, social or cultural problems. But their assessment of the ways in which politicians deal with history education is no less critical. The authors argue that history education should take the background and specific interests of young people as a point of departure and develop students' abilities to think historically, a capacity which includes a critical intellectual attitude. They aim to explore the different ways in which the present has played a role in debates on history education. (Contains 9 footnotes.)