robin1234

Probably partly depends where in the US people live. Just near me, we have Ogdensburgh, NY and Prescott, Ontario, where the glorious victories of the United States and Canada (respectively) are constantly celebrated.

When in Prescott, I'll often have a pint in the Red George Pub, named after the hero of the War of 1812, "Red George" MacDonnell. They REALLY take the War of 1812 seriously in Prescott.

SultanOfSwing

Good point - Illinois wasn't a state until 1818, so I guess most people round here DGAF. I don't tend to talk about any wars a lot anyway though, if I can manage it.

kimilseung

I was in an American History class in High School, and the teacher said, with passion "America won again, it's 2 out of 2".
He was a particularly terrible teacher.
It doesn't come up in chit chat, more in media and online.

SultanOfSwing

Ah, see with context it makes more sense.

I don't remember if my son did a strictly American History course at school now. I know he did World History and the catch-all 'Social Studies' though.

kimilseung

No half decent teacher would make such a claim, and this guy was extremely bad. I have seen a spectrum of history teaching from this guy at one extreme to extremely good at the other.
In my State, to graduate they have to do World History, American History and State History (but this one, can be done online).

SultanOfSwing

Oh yeah, that was definitely the mark of a bad teacher, rather than a bad curriculum.

I must ask him what history classes he did take. You'd think I would remember since he only graduated last year . I know here in Illinois, there is a civics test at 8th grade, that's rather like the citizenship test in a way, but I think that's the only real American History requirement.

I do remember his World History teacher from 'back to school' and parent conference days and he certainly wasn't anything like the one at your school, which was good. Obviously they did American History as a component because I remember seeing homework on Jim Crow and things like that.

kimilseung

My history learning in schools is so long ago I dont remember much of it. I remember little snippets from when I was small, like Mesopotamia, and Danelaw. At some point the triangular slave trade was mentioned. All I really remember is my O'level course which was social history at the time of the Industrial Revolution. There were other O'level options to follow, but for me at least there were few wars of any kind that got covered when I was a t school.
It is different in the US: Mexican American war, Spanish American war, as well as WW1, WW2 all seem to get covered at some point. I think Americans are exposed to some of the lesser wars more than Britons are exposed to their lesser wars in their time at school. Probably because these wars shaped the country as it is today; and you have to go back a long way to find a territory defining war for the UK, and chronology and depth seem to go hand in hand on both sides of the Atlantic. (we study more recent history as we age) So many Americans do seem to be aware of these wars.

SultanOfSwing

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Certainly no problems with the course material, as long as it's presented objectively which in my experience with the teachers my son has had (and thus far my daughter too, who's in a different school than he was at that age) is being done for all subjects.

History in our school was standard UK stuff I think, after having seen other people talking about it elsewhere. Normans, Vikings and a bit of local history in primary school, then onto 1st form where it was more Vikings, then a little bit of the late middle ages before we hit the Tudors and the Renaissance. Then it was WW1, the rise of Nazi Germany and for GSCE we split 4th and 5th year up between 'British history and politics 1900-1945' and 'European history and politics 1900-1945'.

Our history department was good though because they used Blackadder as an educational aid

scrubbedexpat091

I think the war of 1812 is largely dependent on where one is in the US as to how it's viewed.

In So. California I cannot recall this war ever coming up, even in school history classes the main focus was on topics like Mexican/American war, Mexican independence and other topics that happened closer to home.

California wasn't even part of the US in 1812, it was still under Spanish control.

Didn't become US territory until 1848.

So really depends where in the US one is as to how much the war of 1812 is on topic.

Rete

Have no clue if you were talking about an American History Class that you took in high school in England or the US.

In high school we had three years of history classes. Bear in mind that this was in 1964, 1965 and 1966. One year was American History; one year World History; and one year of European History.

While we were not taught that we won the War of 1812 outright, we were taught that it was a win-win situation with a loss of life and destruction of property, etc., etc. The Battle of New Orleans was claimed as an out and out victory for America.

I'm married to a Canuck and that was one of the first heated discussions we had ... the War of 1812 and the teachings in Canada vs. America. He was taught both as he was schooled for some years in the US when he lived here with his parents in Maine and traveled and live with English Grandmother in South Bend, Indiana. He was taught in his US classroom that the US won and he argued that Canada / England won.

Found this quote from the Smithsonian website interesting and echoed on other sites since you made me curious.

"
The British View the War of 1812 Quite Differently Than Americans Do


By contrast, the British historiography of the War of 1812 has generally consisted of short chapters squeezed between the grand sweeping narratives of the Napoleonic Wars. The justification for this begins with the numbers: Roughly 20,000 on all sides died fighting the War of 1812 compared with over 3.5 million in the Napoleonic. But the brevity with which the war has been treated has allowed a persistent myth to grow about British ignorance. In the 19th century, the Canadian historian William Kingsford was only half-joking when he commented, “The events of the War of 1812 have not been forgotten in England for they have never been known there.” In the 20th, another Canadian historian remarked that the War of 1812 is “an episode in history that makes everybody happy, because everybody interprets it differently...the English are happiest of all, because they don’t even know it happened.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...-do-180951852/

scot47

Does ANYONE in British Schools do History ? People I know under the age of 50 seem totally at a loss with any kind of History

Maybe I mix with the wrong sort.

SultanOfSwing

History was mandatory in my school up to 3rd year, then it became a choice between History and Geography (you could do both) at GSCE. So I did it for 5 years, at least

Plus I'm under 50 and I was always into History. Get it from me mum.

kimilseung

I have no idea what its like now in the UK, but in many ways the US school kids I have seen get more exposure to much of UK history than I did. But that is probably a reflection of the times. I don't remember looking at empire at all beyond the triangular slave trade. I've seen the East India Company taught well here in the US, colonialism is covered in some depth across classes, World History as well as CGI (Contemporary Global Issues, this is a bit like geography, with history explaining today), I have a suspicion that my experience may be geographically biased as I am sure its not the same in more conservative areas.

kimilseung

If this is for me, I have not studied American History anywhere, but I have observed it being taught in the US.

robin1234

This changed significantly with the recent 200 year anniversary. For the first time, there were several popular histories published in the UK which raised British awareness of the War of 1812.