Friday, June 1, 2007

Today's Quiz

School's out, so time for a test. Here's a World War II History quiz. This is easy, but then, I'm into this stuff. Have a go, and see if the education system earned your tax dollars. (Hat tip: In from the Cold).
No interest in World War II ? Well, try a quiz on the possible setting for World War III. Here's a basic Geography and History of the Middle East quiz. If you don't like the Middle East either, try this World Capitals quiz.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

9 out of 10.
i missed the war dead.

completely off topic comment:
i don't watch leno.
one night i was surfing the channels and i caught a segement of jaywalking.
he was talking to two cute blondes so i decided to camp for a sec.
these two girls were from kalifornia and the question was, "what happened at pearl harbor in 1941."
between the two of them they decided that, "the germans had attacked the hawaiians, and the hawaiians won".
i am not making this up.
what did both of these cuties do for a living you might ask.......
THEY TAUGHT HISTORY!!!!!!!

hank_F_M said...

El Jefe

I got 30 for 30 right.

But I knew the answers before the school system taught the subjects, so don't blame them.


One good post deserves another:

A post of mine about what could be loosly described as a failed immigration policy

Anonymous said...

hank f/m:
your review has been passed around my e-mail list.

El Jefe Maximo said...

This is a good review, and I will read the book as soon as possible. I'm always on the lookout for Roman history of interest in any case.

I'm not done thinking on this subject: but I see so many Americans taking interest in the fall of Rome just now. Given our immigration problems, and the war, that's not unreasonable.

I too look at Roman history a good deal. I have a great deal of admiration and respect for the Romans (by contrast, I've never had too much use for most of the ancient Greeks). But the period of Roman history I am most interested in of late is that of the Late Republic/Early Empire.

The change from Republic to Empire involved a different sort of fall. Historically, unlike most conservatives, I suppose: my sympathies tend to be with the Caesarians, as opposed to the old Republicans. (The novelist Colleen McCullough sums up my views on this subject pretty well in her "masters of Rome" series). Rome was no longer a city-state, but a real Empire, with interests all around the Med. basin, and the methods and traditions that had served to rule a small state centered around central Italy would no longer do to run the whole Mediterranean basin. It wasn't that Caesar and others wished to do away with the old Republic, so much as it was that the old Republic didn't work anymore.

Events today make me wonder if we are at some similar decision point in our own world. No, I don't think there's going to be some polity called the "American Empire" run by some Augustus type. No, I don't think we're headed for a theoracy, as the liberals maintain. Still, I think it's hard to argue that the situation we find ourselves in has no resemblance whatever to anything imagined by the founders of the Republic.

I will definitely read Eagle in the Snow . But I'd also commend Orson Scott Card's Empire to your attention, and the McCullough series of books I mentioned, one of which I reviewed here.

hank_F_M said...

El Jefe

Thanks for comments.

I was out of town on business and picked up something to read at Half Priced Books and it turned out to be a winner. But then I have always found some of the best books in remainder stores.

Most of my interest in Rome is from the late republican and early imperial eras, though mostly military. I wonder that if Julius Caesar had not been assassinated the Imperial era would have had a more solid constitional basis, avoiding the civil wars over succession and the damage they caused and generally leaving Rome in a better position to deal with subsequent problems. Gaius Marius has always been one of favorite Romans. I will have to check out the McCullough books.

Thanks for the link.

hank_F_M said...

Louielouie

Thanks for the plug in your Email list.