What do American's know of English History?

Question:Somethings in our country's history we feel like everybody knows, but I am wondering what people in other countries actually know.

For example, I am English and I often get the impression that Americans know a lot about the history of their presidents. In England however we are never taught anything about American presidents.

Does this surprise you?

and what do you know about us?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Somethings in our country's history we feel like everybody knows, but I am wondering what people in other countries actually know.

For example, I am English and I often get the impression that Americans know a lot about the history of their presidents. In England however we are never taught anything about American presidents.

Does this surprise you?

and what do you know about us?

I always wondered about this too. We have a class called "European History" but I can't imagine that foreign countries have an American history class, because we've only been around for a few hundred years.
We do learn a lot about our presidents, especially in high school. I am not surprised you aren't taught anything about our presidents, unless perhaps during the time periods when we were involved with you (our Revolutionary War, War of 1812, WWI, WWII, etc.), right?

I know some things about your country. I kind of know about the House of Lords and the House of Commons (which I sort of think is outdated), and Parliament. Mostly government stuff, not a lot about society and culture.

Enough. If I want to know more, I just look in an encyclopedia or history book or try to remember what I was taught in school. God Bless you.

This doesn't surprise me, I've never really learned about British prime ministers, mostly just the important kings involved in U.S. history. Mostly what we learn about England involves the U.S. in some way, except in World or European history where English civil war and industrial revolution and other main events are covered.

I know Henry VIII was a fat-@ss.

I actually know quite a lot about English/British history, but I'm a history buff.

I think it depends on how interested people are. In High School, I remember being taught about Henry VIII and the whole thing about the Protestant reformation. We also talked about the Spanish Armada and Queen Elizabeth I. We may have talked about the Civil War and Oliver Cromwell (but I may have picked that up later through various books). After that, we learn a lot about the British involvement in America - the founding of all the colonies and the various reasons why English settlers came here. We hear a lot about George II and George III, since they were the kings during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War (which are very connected). After that, I think there's only some brief mention about the Brits in the war of 1812 and some things about Queen Victoria. We hardly ever talk about any Prime Ministers, as during the time periods I learned about, the Monarch was more powerful.

Since High School, I've learned a lot more from reading various books and things and now I live in England much of the year - so Iearn something every day. It's a bit odd that you don't learn about the presidents - but if you cover the history without reference to them, I guess that's cool too.

thats not really surprising. American presidents are AMERICAN history. so while people around the world should, out of courtesy at least know the important ones, you don't need to know every little fact.

as for English history, i know i bit cause i find history interesting, but i focus more on the Tudors and major turning points. Also times when America intersected with England's history. especially World War II

but i believe that the world should learn more about each others history, but if someone is not a history major in college, or something, there is only so much a person can learn especially if the country is not the birthplace, of country of growing up in.

I'm pretty up on history, but I have pretty large gaps in knowledge when it comes to knowing English Prime Ministers (similar to how you would know American Presidents.)

Off the top of my head, I can think of Disraeli, Chamberlain, and Churchill (as important historical figures) and I know those PMs whose tenure I had lived through (i.e. Thatcher, Major, Blair, and Brown.) Everyone else in between and before then would require a Wikipedia search for me.

We learn some in grade school and high school. Western Civ is no longer a requirement at many colleges, rather a shame, but understandable at the cost of tuition these days.

Some of us are history buffs. Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples is quite readable, although professional historians might prefer more scholarly tomes.

It seems that Americans fall into two camps, those who know American History and those who don't have a clue. My bias.

People in the USA know very little about anyone else outside of their borders. Many times I've had Americans ask if I lived in an Igloo. Those who don't know seem to think we are in snow most of the year.
We Canadians actually studied more about other countries than our own. From my school days I can tell you more about the wars, changes and times of events in other countries more than I can about our own history. It's good to know the background but we have a colorful history too. Funny, those who wrote Canadas history didn't have the full facts. They're just letting people know now. Like: the first people to discover North America were the Vikings. Little was known about them or why they didn't stay. Settlements have been found in Labrador, Newfoundland and all down the East coast. Yet Christopher Columbus gets credit for discovering America......chapters of our history are unraveling all the time.