The objective of the work is to gather and interpret the academic production (theses and dissertations) about the textbook of physical education. The period between 1987 and 2018 was focused, using the information from the Catalogue of Theses and Dissertations of the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel. The justification lies in the recent inclusion of physical education in the National Book and Didactic Material Program and the need to find subsidies for the monitoring of this implementation process and the developments in the scope of the teaching practice of physical education. Referring to Richard Rorty’s pragmatism to recontextualise the production and present a new text, the hope and fears present in academic productions stand out, with emphasis on a set of works “exploring the potential of the textbook” that has hope in the experimental and humble ways. believers in the broad theoretical ways of finding justice and truth. Finally, another point of view is suggested to teachers of physical education, so that they can receive the textbooks of the area with affection for a humble and experimentalistic hope identified, in particular, in the group that will be called “exploiters of the potential of the textbook”.