How is the American War for Independance taught in the UK?

Craorach

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I dont know about other European countries but most of my History education about national histories, in England, was focussed on our own history and that of Europe. The Revolution was touched on during our time studying the Empire but it was more of a footnote than anything else.

This question actually came up during that period in time, since we had an American in our class. He told the teacher his parents had complained that we weren't learning American History.. my teachers response was roughly "In Europe we have so much history to cover we have to cover the important parts, not the details of some teenager nation which thinks its the best thing ever."
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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Loiterer said:
Lil devils x said:
Why would it matter in a Tea Party Rally?
Well they named themselves after a prolific act of colonial era American defiance for a start...
They view the Tea party as a call for civil disobedience. It was a prelude to civil war, which would mean British fighting the British. So it would not be "weird" to them. LOL
 

Some_weirdGuy

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I'd say it gets about as much attention as the latin american wars of independence, or others.

While your independence may be a big deal to you what makes you think its more then a footnote in the histories of other nations?
 

Febel

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Some_weirdGuy said:
I'd say it gets about as much attention as the latin american wars of independence, or others.

While your independence may be a big deal to you what makes you think its more then a footnote in the histories of other nations?
We've covered that by now. Now we've moved onto the usual petty fighting and bickering that plagues all discussions of national history.
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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Some_weirdGuy said:
I'd say it gets about as much attention as the latin american wars of independence, or others.

While your independence may be a big deal to you what makes you think its more then a footnote in the histories of other nations?
Considering it was a civil war with England, you would think that their history classes would cover it. The US covers all of it's civil wars. But then again, the UK had alot of civil wars.
 

Yeager942

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JacobShaftoe said:
I think it's the Japanese lack of interest in the history of WW2 that's sorta creepy. The only war crime the poms committed was wearing red and walking in a straight line. BTW the red coats were because some paragon of the British officer class thought it'd stop the men freaking out over the wounded, as you'd hardly notice the bleeding and screaming over the loudness of their jackets :p
Kind of makes you wonder if unit 731 is mentioned at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Stuff of nightmares.
 

Loiterer

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Lil devils x said:
Considering it was a civil war with England, you would think that their history classes would cover it. The US covers all of it's civil wars. But then again, the UK had alot of civil wars.
It's not a civil war. England only had one civil war, in the 17th century.
 

trooper6

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Some_weirdGuy said:
I'd say it gets about as much attention as the latin american wars of independence, or others.

While your independence may be a big deal to you what makes you think its more then a footnote in the histories of other nations?
Because it was the first nationalist revolution anywhere. In many ways it is the beginning of modern nationalism.
Because it started the move away from monarchic systems for the West.
Because it inspired the French Revolution.

The American Revolution isn't important because of America or England, it is important for its position as part of the development of Enlightenment thinking and the beginning of the end of Feudalism. And also for the beginning salvo against the Colonial and monarchic systems.

I don't expect any non-US Westerner to learn much about US history...but I do expect Western folks to learn about the US War of Independence. *Especially* if they were one of the parties fighting in it. Similarly, I expect Westerners to learn about the French Revolution and the Protestant Reformation.

But, I have learned years and years about that that is not the case in the UK--though my French friends learned about the American Revolution..and I think my German friends did, too.

So, I just shrug and figure every education system has different politics.
 

Marble Dragon

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Sacman said:
theonlyblaze2 said:
I've wondered this before. I also wonder how World War 2 and the Holocaust are covered in Germany.
I always figured it was handled the same way the US Internment of Japanese citizens is handled in the US... you know barely touch upon it and have the surrounding curriculum be about how great and noble your country was and then hope nobody noticed by not even including a question about it on the test...
I used to live on Bainbridge Island, one of the first places Japanese-Americans were taken from, and we studied Japanese internment for what seemed like forever. Every year. We even had people who were once in internment camps come in and talk to us. Of course, that was a big part of that particular island's culture, but still. My point is, on the west coast we study that particular fuckup quite a bit. Dunno where you are.
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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Loiterer said:
Lil devils x said:
Considering it was a civil war with England, you would think that their history classes would cover it. The US covers all of it's civil wars. But then again, the UK had alot of civil wars.
It's not a civil war. England only had one civil war, in the 17th century.
Yes it is. The rest of the world views it as such. When your army is fighting your own people, it is a civil war.
 

Minischoles

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You've got to understand, that with British History, teachers have a huge amount to cover. US History runs from it's founding to modern day, while British History runs back thousands of years. While you're learning about events barely a few hundred years old, we're learning about The Tudors and Stuarts, about the Magna Carta and the Domesday book, or the English Civil War.

And quite frankly, in the time period there are far more important events to be studying than the colonies breaking away, the French Revolution has far more importance and impact. To Americans their independence is a big deal, to Europeans it's just one of the many factors that led to Louis getting his head chopped off.

Generally after this period as well, most history teaching focuses on another event that had far more impact than the colonies, and that's the industrial revolution. The colonies getting independence falls during a very busy period, and the curriculum (at least while I was in school) was focused far more on the Industrial Revolution leading into WW1, than on the colonies.
 

trooper6

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Lil devils x said:
Loiterer said:
Lil devils x said:
Considering it was a civil war with England, you would think that their history classes would cover it. The US covers all of it's civil wars. But then again, the UK had alot of civil wars.
It's not a civil war. England only had one civil war, in the 17th century.
Yes it is. The rest of the world views it as such. When your army is fighting your own people, it is a civil war.
I do want to point out that the US population was more than just British people. There were *huge* numbers of Germans for example...and Dutch, French, Spaniards, etc. One of the reasons the US doesn't have an official national language is because the founding fathers couldn't decide between English and German.
 

Loiterer

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Lil devils x said:
Yes it is. The rest of the world views it as such. When your army is fighting your own people, it is a civil war.
No it isn't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civil_wars#Early_Modern_.281550.E2.80.931800.29

The American Revolutionary war isn't there. The American colonists weren't English. There were loyalist colonists who fought on the side of the British Empire, but that still doesn't make it a civil war.
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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trooper6 said:
Lil devils x said:
Loiterer said:
Lil devils x said:
Considering it was a civil war with England, you would think that their history classes would cover it. The US covers all of it's civil wars. But then again, the UK had alot of civil wars.
It's not a civil war. England only had one civil war, in the 17th century.
Yes it is. The rest of the world views it as such. When your army is fighting your own people, it is a civil war.
I do want to point out that the US population was more than just British people. There were *huge* numbers of Germans for example...and Dutch, French, Spaniards, etc. One of the reasons the US doesn't have an official national language is because the founding fathers couldn't decide between English and German.
"The American Revolution was a civil war between Loyalists to the British crown (aka Tories, about one fifth of the population), supported by British expeditionary forces, and Patriots (or Whigs) in the 13 colonies that constituted British North America."

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-26-2005-77540.asp
 

Sonic Doctor

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Sacman said:
Sonic Doctor said:
Well I didn't get that in Elementary school... every year it was the same rehashed story about Thanksgiving that wasn't true anyway... and that's all we honestly heard on the subject, I had to learn a lot more from the History channel and, being Native American myself, my family members... though I went to catholic school, a catholic school that didn't even touch upon evolution in 8th grade biology despite the fact that there was an entire chapter about it in the book, so a skewed curriculum might have had something to do with it there... but Highschool wasn't much better, I took history 3 years, World History, Geography which doubled as a history class, and US History... Geography actually taught me more about Native Americans than US History did we pretty much just went over the whole Christopher Columbus thing, the revolution, than it skipped ahead to the civil war, industrial Revolution, WWI/WWII and finished in the Cold War... I remember my teacher brought War Hammer 40K figures so we can play out WWII battle scenarios... but we never learned anything significant about Native Americans all I remember is that they were briefly mentioned during the French and Indian war...
I see.

I didn't take Geography in high school, because it was a required class in 7th grade, with US history required in 8th grade, and since Geography was an elective in high school, I chose not to take it. In high school, I elected to take World history as a freshman though not many freshman took it so I was with a bunch of upperclassmen. Since it was clumped into the broad area of social sciences with history, I took Psychology as a sophomore. US History was a junior year requirement, and then Economics and Government both were required as a senior, though as a senor I also added Advanced US History(The only Advanced class I passed out of the three I took, Advanced Biology and Advanced Chemistry were big mistakes that I ended up dropping and getting an extra study hall hour for each one for the last half of the semesters I tried to take them).

I kind of find it sad that a good deal of my time in high school is getting blurred together. I didn't think I would already have such memory blurring at the age of 25. I only graduated from high school seven years ago, and it feels like it was ages ago.

One thing I wish they hadn't spoon fed me back then, was the idea that if I went to college that I was practically guaranteed to get a job. While I had some great times in college, it is a crock to say it will guarantee a job. Anymore nowadays, it seems like the only way to get any kind of job, is to have an inside connection before getting out of college. Plus, today, employers don't even look at college, they only care if the person has 3 to 5 years of experience, stupidly, that is entry level requirement.

Well, that got off track, hmmm, Independance day, Independence day.....my grandpa's birthday is on Independence day.

Meh, from what I have read, the original topic is only producing tangent conversations.
 
Dec 16, 2009
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Well I think its been established its not taught in our schools.
it's been a while since my school days, and our teachers didnt even touch on it.

although it appears to be a big deal for our American friends, I put our lack of interest down to;
- it being a loss, and no country really wants to focus on those.
- it being so long ago, since then Britain has had the 1949 British Nationality Act (and other subsequent BNA's) which has given independence to the vast majority of colonies. Them British Empire doesn't exist any more, and the Commonwealth is little more than a shell.

In essence, we've moved on from all that. USA gaining it's independence may understandably be a big deal to Americans, but the British have long gotten over the fact we don't have an empire.

thats my 2 pence anyhoo
 

Jegsimmons

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i find it surprising that the american revolution wouldn't be covered in English schools since a vast majority of my high school history classes dealed with not only American history, but european, asian, african, south and central american history as well, and not just token mentioning either, full chapters of this stuff.