Re: Re: Digest Number 596

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_dIIl2Mb4Ct6MXLAHAtFekhjAKr1WbvF5xzNUxOtf7ZTorjqYvgbNd_3PuIa6G>
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 19:02:41 +0000 (GMT)


> Actually the Dutch were the last people to
> successfully invade
> England. During the Glorious Revolution of 1688,
> William of Orange
> landed in England with an army of Dutch mercenary
> troops and English
> and Scottish volunteers. After some minor
> skirmishes, King James II
> fled to France and Parliament made William king.

Ah, that explains why I didn't know that bit. School history stopped part-way through the Stuarts.

> > > Sheesh, you need an *American* to tell you your
> own
> > > history?
> > Well, you don't have much of your own to learn, so
> > presumably have memory free for other stuff.
>
> Few Europeans I've met study much history prior to
> WWII (except maybe
> a romanticized study of pre-Christian Europe) and
> are usually
> appallingly ignorant of their own history.

Really? Maybe that's the "except the Brits" definition of "Europe", then. We tend to start with the Romans, skip most of the "Dark Ages", then start memorising dates from 1066 onwards. You stop when you specialise (and drop History) at about 13 or so. People who actually do History qualifications often seem to end up with WW2 as a specialist period, for some reason, and hence have a gap of several centuries in their knowledge. Personally I filled in a few gaps by reading fiction set in the Napoleonic period and getting interested in the "Dark Ages", but that was nothing to do with Eddication.                                   



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