Abstract Van Nieuwenhuyse, utilising content and discourse analysis, compares chapters on the Cold War in four different Flemish textbooks used to teach twelfth grade, examining both how they portray the Soviet Union and the USA and which groups they assign agency to in this period (from non-human actors, such as nations, to individuals). Students, Van Nieuwenhuyse argues, must understand the importance of agency in history and in their daily lives, a significance which they can recognise through being taught history. The chapter proposes that an education in history which emphasises nuance, resists homogenisation and explicitly highlights different historiographical approaches to the Cold War in turn encourages students to realise the importance of individual and collective action in the past and future.