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How do British text/history books treat the American Revolution?

NFS4

NFS4

No Lifer
I don't know why this popped into my head, but I was just wondering this? How does British text treat cover the topic of the American Revolution? Are we seen as ungrateful bastards? Are they put in a better light?
 
Probably as one-sided as American text books on the subject.. interesting though, maybe some UK AT'ers can reply about their school experience.
 
I know my relatives on the other side of the pond like to refer to the US as "The Colonies"....then again they're family so I expect some abuse.
 
saw a show on the history channel once where an english professor talked about it waking the english up and that they were creating the 'wrong empire'
 
I don't think it gets much of a mention in schools to be honest - there's just too much British history to cover, so many colonies and wars and conflicts, so many important people...

In the history books they just try to tell the truth I guess. Why? Are we painted in a bad light in US schools? I wouldn't be surprised. I heard they teach that America won the second world war pretty much by itself.
 
Originally posted by: Feldenak
I know my relatives on the other side of the pond like to refer to the US as "The Colonies"....then again they're family so I expect some abuse.
Click to expand...

Never heard the US referred to like that over here.

When I was in school, history was Euro-centric. The two areas of focus were the Romans and WW2. I only did history for the first 3 years of secondary school but I don't remember my friends ever mentioning American stuff. They were going in depth on Europe, and specialising in more local history.
 
Dont recall ever learning about it in school. Unless it was a one day class that I missed..

We learnt about the romans, Angles + Saxons, Norman Invasion, Englsih Civil War, world war 1 + 2, industrial revolution.

I still refer to the US as the colonies. Its my colony. Mine.
 
Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
Originally posted by: Feldenak
I know my relatives on the other side of the pond like to refer to the US as "The Colonies"....then again they're family so I expect some abuse.
Click to expand...

When I was in school, history was Euro-centric. The two areas of focus were the Romans and WW2.
Click to expand...

Sure, but what do they teach AFTER 8th grade?
 
Lived in Northern Ireland for a while, all of the Unionist/Protestants refered to the United States of America as "The Colonies."
 
"Those damned, dirty enemy combatants threw our tea into the harbor. THE HARBOR! Next thing you know they'll declare open war on crumpets! I'm not having it anymore, I'm just not having it!"
 
Originally posted by: Atheus
I don't think it gets much of a mention in schools to be honest - there's just too much British history to cover, so many colonies and wars and conflicts, so many important people...

In the history books they just try to tell the truth I guess. Why? Are we painted in a bad light in US schools? I wouldn't be surprised. I heard they teach that America won the second world war pretty much by itself.
Click to expand...

well, we did basically beat the japanese by ourselves.

and our industrial output fueled much of the fight in europe.

we won WWI by ourselves too. you guys were fscked before we showed up. 😉
 
Originally posted by: Platypus
Probably as one-sided as American text books on the subject.. interesting though, maybe some UK AT'ers can reply about their school experience.
Click to expand...

We don't portray the war as one-sided....It was a horrible hard-ship on both sides of the war, and each side nearly lost at least a half dozen times apiece before the Americans triumphed. I've never heard any book describe it any other way.
 
Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Sure, but what do they teach AFTER 8th grade?
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As I said:

They were going in depth on Europe, and specialising in more local history.
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I don't remember the details although the English civil war rang some bells when dirtylimey mentioned it. This was over 11 years ago...

 
Originally posted by: Atheus
Why? Are we painted in a bad light in US schools? I wouldn't be surprised. I heard they teach that America won the second world war pretty much by itself.
Click to expand...

The English government of the period is painted in a bad light, yes.

And no, our schools do NOT teach that the US won WWII on it's own. On the contrary, the Brits are painted as tough as nails heroes who withstood the Battle of Britain and won North Africa.

Churchill is painted as a hero as well. Though Montgomery is rather scorned, his efforts are not.

D-Day history focuses mainly on the US because of the horrible time we had at Omaha Beach.
 
Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
Originally posted by: Feldenak
I know my relatives on the other side of the pond like to refer to the US as "The Colonies"....then again they're family so I expect some abuse.
Click to expand...

Never heard the US referred to like that over here.

When I was in school, history was Euro-centric. The two areas of focus were the Romans and WW2. I only did history for the first 3 years of secondary school but I don't remember my friends ever mentioning American stuff. They were going in depth on Europe, and specialising in more local history.
Click to expand...

I bolded the part that's important and why they probably refer to it as "The Colonies". 🙂
 
Originally posted by: DVK916
You don't even learn about the War of 1812?
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Sorry dude, no, I had to look that one up...

Remember that Britain has been around a long time, and has much much more history then the USA, so small wars don't really get covered. Even the American war of independence, a huge event for Americans, would have been considered a mere annoyance to an country which literally owned 1/4 of the earth's surface at the time.

http://www.regiments.org/img/maps/bemap.gif
 
This is the syllabus specification for the current year and the near future for students up to the age of 16. This is only applicable to one of the larger examining boards in England, there will be some regional variation.
 
If I remember right, during WWII, private U.S. citizens were sending their own firearms to the UK to arm the citizenry in case the Nazi's managed to land an invasion force. Unfortunately, I believe they were all destroyed after the war. 🙁
 
Originally posted by: Atheus
I don't think it gets much of a mention in schools to be honest - there's just too much British history to cover, so many colonies and wars and conflicts, so many important people...

In the history books they just try to tell the truth I guess. Why? Are we painted in a bad light in US schools? I wouldn't be surprised. I heard they teach that America won the second world war pretty much by itself.
Click to expand...

Not too bad, just excessive taxation.

And we won World War I by ourselves too. 😛
 
Originally posted by: Platypus
Probably as one-sided as American text books on the subject.. interesting though, maybe some UK AT'ers can reply about their school experience.
Click to expand...

my school books were not one-sided. we were taught and understood what the war was about and why we were fighting the brits, and why the brits were fighting us.
 
So basically, they skip the whole ugly hundreds of years of British colonial imperialism and intrusion and jump from ancient rome to WWII. No wonder Brits are so damn snooty.....THEY'RE PERFECT!!!
 
It wasn't covered much if at all, but maybe I just don't remember. It was always King Harold, Saxons, Vikings and all that Jazz for me.
 
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