Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Or for those of you who want a quiz but hate dates!

Okay, okay, someone said to me (alright, I'll admit, it was my editor) "this book is all about stories and people, why give a quiz on dates?"
So the question is, are dates imprtant? I used to think they weren't, but I've changed my mind-- it's useful to at least have a sense of when something happened in history. For example, if you know that Prohibition ended in 1933, you can assume that the liquor smuggling gangster heyday was before that. Or if you know that Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863 you can assume he wasn't assasinated until after that. I find that having a handful of dates very firmly fixed as landmarks in my memory helps me locate other events in time.
So is it critical to know dates? Being off by a year or so probably doesn't matter except on a test -- being off by a decade or two could lead to a serious misunderstanding of historical events.

Anyway, for those of you who don't have those landmark years firmly in place, try this multiple choice history quiz that has nothing to do with dates at all.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I took the quiz and got everything right of course; but alas, have no evidence! ;-)

Clicking Done sent me to a site where you need to register for their service. Perhaps I'm technically challenged.

Jennifer Armstrong said...

Ah, but Tanya, you didn't get them all right! I think you'll have to get The American Story -- all the answers are in the book.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Oh dear! I asked for a quiz like this, and I edited the book, and I don't think I got all the questions right even still! Mind like a sieve! Happily, I can read the book again and again until it all sinks in. What a pleasure!

Nancy