Americans believe they are unbound by history. Historian Christopher Lasch saw this as a reflection of their "narcissism." It is also, for many, a way to avoid grappling with what and who their nation is. It was easier, while U.S. dominance lasted, for citizens to comfort themselves with consoling FABLES of U.S. benevolence while real historical knowledge steadily declined. Americans' continuing separation from the rest of the multilingual and integrated world only exacerbates the problem. Seclusion has not only bred ignorance; is has also bred fear, which we have seen manifested repeatedly in the exaggerated assessment of enemy threats and recurrent panics about alien intruders, domestic and foreign radicals, and more recently, menacing Islamic terrorists.
U.S. citizens' ignorance of their country's history was once again driven home when the results of a nationwide test, known as the Nation's Report Card, were unveiled in June 2011. The test of fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders revealed that U.S. students are, according to the New York Times, "less proficient in their nation's history than in any other subject." The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 12 percent of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency. And even the "proficiency" of the 12 percent was called into question when, shockingly, only 12 percent could identify the social problem that the Brown v. Board of Education decision was meant to correct, even though the answer was evident in the wording of the question. ~ The Untold History of the United States
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