A friend of mine told me that Americans don't study Europe's history. Is it true?

Question

.A girl of Minnesota told her this....we are europeans.
- I can't believe that!

Answer 1

From an American - American public schools are the laughing stock of the world. What I was taught in school is about 0.1% of what I've learned on my own. I think they teach something about Columbus, England and the US war of independence, perhaps a bit on the war of 1812. They cover a little on the "Pilgrims", and maybe point out that there was a WWI and WWII. I don't know for sure about what Europeans (in general) are taught, but I think this to some extent explains the total ignorance of average Americans vis-a-vis international politics.

Answer 2

In college we get plenty of European history. In the public schools (my wife went to a private Christian school and she know things that I learned in college) however if we get anything its Renaissance to modern. (Which when you study it for your self you find a lot of what you were taught is incorrect or slanted contextually in such a way that its conclusions are often the opposite of what they truly are.And also that your teachers are not very well read.)This is because there is a reactionary philosophy held by liberal educators in the US (Massachusetts) which associate western civilization with racism and Christianity which is hated by these people. These people fail to understand that euro-centrism is based on the fact that the European civilization has become world civilization, its excepted by every one to some degree or another because it in sum (for its many faults) is superior to all other know civilizations. Much like the Welshman that wants to preserve his language and culture but can not except that it will fade away and the English one will persist, so they think that by ignoring it or trying to equate it as equal to some African(a European word) spear chucker culture that thinking people could actually believe that. Unfortunately a lot of this crap is still taught in the public schools yet I see it less and less.

Here are few questions that will stump 70% of Americans.
1. What dose "crossing Rubicon" mean? 95% wouldn't know

2. Who was Charlemagne? 90% wouldn't know

3. Who was Martin Luther? 50% Civil rights activist

4. Who was Peter the Hermit? 99% wouldn't know

5. What was Feudalism? 80% wouldn't know

6. Who was Bismarck and where was he from? 99% don't know

7. What was the Magna Carter? 89% wouldn't know

8. Henry the 8th was the King of what country?

9. What resulted from the Franco-Prussian War?

10. What was the Crimean War? Where is the Crimea?

11. What is the Danube? Where is the Po River Valley located?

12. Who was John Calvin?

13. Which Jewish Pharisee is historically credited with the missionary work which led to the Christianizing of most of Europe?

14. Who were Paricles, Nero, Vindex, and Attila?

15. What is the significance of the settlement at Kiev Russ?

16. Where were the Vikings from?

17. Who was Guttenberg?

My point is that American have absolutely no understanding of there own culture just ask these questions and see. Pit my guessed % against your own data.

Oh by the way even though Canadians and Europeans are better educated than Americans (not much better-no depth) they tend to lack the common sense (grasp of human nature) that many Americans seem to have. (This is my observation and I can't statistically prove it)
That being said Westerners in general have become dumbed down in the last 40 years or so.(In my opinion-based on my own reading of primary sources.)

Answer 3

I'm an American and have studied Europe's history extensively. My favorite time period is from 1 AD to 1500 AD. Our college classes have all kinds of European history courses. There are also tons of books available in the USA to read on European history.

Answer 4

I live in minnesota and we study europe's history. Although it might not be very good and long but we do cover a lot of it in world history and there are electives with european history, but 4 years of high school can't have a year of european history. And every school district is different but most cover europe in world history.

Answer 5

Pretty much. Unless they are taking college courses the require a knowledge of european histroy, most americans education only includes such parts of European history as relate to American history, little if anythng before Columbus, only as much of England as is necessary to understand the colonization of the Americas, (pre-revolutionary war) and then only such things as were pare of the interations between America and Europe, but very little else.

There are a few ( like myself) that have, for reason of their own, taken up the study of European history, most as part of ahveing taken up the practice of ancestral, european based religious systems (Greek, Norse, Celtic etc.).

Most americans don't even acknowledge that they HAVE European roots, or if they do they see it as some distant connection that doesn't mean anything anymore. And that is too bad too...They are really missing out on someting...

Answer 6

Nopers.

It seems that we study European history for about 3 years (Grades 6 - 9), but mind that it's all ANCIENT Europe, such as ancient Greece and Rome. We do the World Wars later on when everybody's mature enough to handle the death, etc, but we definately do study European history.

Answer 7

That may be the case for very few schools in the country, but for the most part, American public schools have always taught European history. When I was in high school, I learned all about the Renaissance, we read European literature, and studied ancient and contemporary European cultures.

Answer 8

It is partly true. In parts of the American history we learn about Europe, but you can occasionally find a class about Europe's history. People in America did come from Europe.

Answer 9

I can't say for sure now, the way education has gotten screwed up, but 40 years ago we studied a lot of European history.

Answer 10

Of course we study it, and usually it's called Western Civilization, at least it was when I went to college. And to the person who said Europe is "new" -obviously you need to do some studying!

People in American are sometimes left behind in the educational process because of the lousy education we get at the elementary, middle-school, and high-school level. Other countries educated their young much better. Don't get me started!