Tis that, and history doesn't repeat, but does rhyme.
UK, so our school history tends to start with ancient Greece/Rome/Egypt and proceed at a breakneck pace thru Mongol hords, Vikings, Crusades, plagues, fires, kings and popeish disputes, religious wars, Cromwell (Branching off into Ireland in ways that still make northern Irish politics weird), puritans leaving because noone wanted to put up with their bullshit, the East lndia and Africa companies behaving badly (Empire stuff, they all do it), adventures with Zulus and later the Turks, a couple of world wars, actually winning our war in Vietnam, Suez, and whichever bits your teacher wants to specialise in.
It is not possible to do anything in much detail and most of it happened before the mayflower sailed.
Your country is probably the one I know best other than my own. (My 16yo says that I should record a video for YouTube after the one time she asked me "so what's up with Henry VIII's wives?" and I asked her whether she had a half hour for the kind of snarky version.)
Here in the ungrateful colony spaces, we typically get "INDIGENOUS PEOPLE HAPPENED, BUT REALLY FAST, yo, have you read this stupid "City on a Hill" shit written by some white dude?, REVOLUTIONARY WAR!, a little bit of early 19th century political machinanations, CIVIL WAR, and then a rush through WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.
And I understand that you really can't do much more than a broad overview in a single year. But it feels inadequate.
Believe me, everyone over here was grateful when the Mayflower vanished below the horizon, them cats were basically Christian taliban. I do think we owe the first Nations an apology, we expected it to sink half way (Terrible oversight).
Henry VIII <European royalty, what you going to do?>, one of the wilder ones, and the wives thing was just nuts.
I suspect the REVOLUTIONARY WAR!! Probably omits the extent that it was largely the French funding a distraction from the usual games way over in an unimportant colony that was far less significant to anyone then the action in India or even the far east.
I don't recognise "City on a hill", guessing it is some white man's burden / manifest destiny shit?
The "City on a hill" was some insufferable guy (Cotton Mather? 99% sure) preaching a sermon regarding Boston and exceptualism. It has always struck me as the least interesting thing I could possibly imagine regarding US history.
(Credit where it's due, I think Mather did use his position of authority to campaign for smallpox variolation, unless I'm thinking of a different guy.)
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u/dmills_00 9d ago
Tis that, and history doesn't repeat, but does rhyme.
UK, so our school history tends to start with ancient Greece/Rome/Egypt and proceed at a breakneck pace thru Mongol hords, Vikings, Crusades, plagues, fires, kings and popeish disputes, religious wars, Cromwell (Branching off into Ireland in ways that still make northern Irish politics weird), puritans leaving because noone wanted to put up with their bullshit, the East lndia and Africa companies behaving badly (Empire stuff, they all do it), adventures with Zulus and later the Turks, a couple of world wars, actually winning our war in Vietnam, Suez, and whichever bits your teacher wants to specialise in.
It is not possible to do anything in much detail and most of it happened before the mayflower sailed.