This paper is a study of some of the mathematics textbooks that were used in Swedish public schools from 1842 to the present. During this period several revisions of the curriculum took place and led to a change of contents in the various books. The first part is a description of the books chosen and highlights from each are given and compared with the corresponding curriculum. Also social and political change and the role of men and women can be studied in the examples presented. A comparison between similar topics and how they were accounted for in the older versus the newer books follows suite. In the discussion part some causes for differences and what the authors believe should be considered in the future can be found.