# Are you proficient in American history? Test **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 28, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625 "2011-07-28T15:39:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/101 "2011-07-30T00:33:46Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > South African - 9/10 > I thought the \*start \*of the 1800s was too soon for factories in the US to have that big an impact so went with immigrant labour. Aussie with exactly the same result and reasoning. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/102 "2011-07-30T01:34:35Z")
10/10. I had to think awhile about the frontier question, but the answer about the pioneers losing their farms sounded more like something William Jennigns Bryan would have said. And yes, pickled meat sounds pretty digusting. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/103 "2011-07-30T03:15:55Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > No, you’re supposed to know from matching up the date in the question to the industrial revolution. If you studied [Marxist literary criticism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_literary_criticism)\* in college, you would have gotten a refresher on the decline of the cottage system. Hmm, I suppose. I was too busy in college studying [kinetics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_kinetics) and [thermodynamics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamics) 😃 Interesting info though. I wish I could study it all. Damn, I wish there was a job as “professional student”. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/104 "2011-07-30T04:08:51Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > 8/10. I’m always wary about tests that throw in trick questions, so I second-guessed question 1 and decided the obvious answer couldn’t have been right. Also missed the Frederick Jackson Turner one. Same with me but my second wrong was due to my poor mouse skills and I clicked the wrong thing. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/105 "2011-07-30T11:37:27Z")
I got 10/10, and I’m not American, nor have I studied American history in any great depth. I suspect that test really wasn’t that hard (a few of the questions were international ones, anyway). ---
**Author:** ![Cara\_mel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Cara\_mel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cara_mel)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/106 "2011-07-30T12:20:19Z")
I got 9/10, and the question I missed was the slave one - had no idea they were counted as three fifths of a person. Gee, all you non-US people knew that? I had a vague memory of the isolationist policy of the US, so got that one right. forgot to mention, I’m Aussie ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/107 "2011-07-30T13:53:37Z")
10/10. I’m reading Ned Sublette’s [The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square](http://www.amazon.com/World-That-Made-New-Orleans/dp/1556529589/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1), which gave me a refresher on the 3/5 calculation. (It’s a fascinating book & a reminder that not all of our history begins "the year 1620 the Pilgrims came over.) The Industrial Revolution question was a bit of a guess. Subsequent research covered the water power driven [mills of New England](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution#United_States) starting it over here. (Horse power not having worked out well.) Maybe those rare visits to the city of my birth counted–giant red brick buildings built beside a river. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Know\_Nothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f04885/32.png) [@I\_Know\_Nothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Know_Nothing)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/108 "2011-07-30T16:50:12Z")
> [@SerenaPerido](#): > > I missed was the slave one - had no idea they were counted as three fifths of a person. Gee, all you non-US people knew that? That’s the part the House of Representatives left out when reading it aloud after the Republicans took over. [http://gawker.com/5726602/congress-will-read-the-constitution-minus-the-icky-slavery-parts](http://gawker.com/5726602/congress-will-read-the-constitution-minus-the-icky-slavery-parts) ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/109 "2011-07-30T18:37:37Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > 10/10. I had to think awhile about the frontier question, but the answer about the pioneers losing their farms sounded more like something William Jennigns Bryan would have said. > > And yes, pickled meat sounds pretty digusting. Actually, it depends on the meat. I could go for some pig’s feet. I got 9 out of 10. I missed the frontier question. I wasn’t aware the 1890 census closed the frontier. Was everyone told to bring their purchases up to the counter? Did someone stake out a homestead at 11:45 pm on December 31, 1889, and piss off all the employees? ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/110 "2011-07-30T19:30:46Z")
10/10 though I made an educated guess at one and the last one I knew from cultural references. The others were straightforward and pretty easy. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/111 "2011-07-30T19:31:39Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > 10/10. I don’t think any of them really used my history knowledge but rather my critical thinking skills which ideally is a cross-discipline skillset. Same here. There were a few I had to think “this is the most logical choice” but still got 10/10 :). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/112 "2011-07-30T21:51:20Z")
10//10 and history was my worst subject in HS. Only one question, about the decline of the apprenticeship system, even gave me pause. I finally decided that there had not been substantial inflows of unskilled labor until the Irish famine in 1845. The Frederick Jackson quote is pretty famous. And from spending 2-3 weeks in Barbados every winter, I knew all about the triangular trade. Incidentally, the reason the cane was processed on the islands instead of being shipped back to the mother country is that, just like corn, the sugar starts turning to starch within a few hours of harvest. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Klutz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captain_klutz/32/4993_2.png) [@Captain\_Klutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Klutz)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/113 "2011-07-31T11:23:08Z")
10/10 and I’m not American. A bit unsure about some of them, but I was pretty good at eliminating the 2 least likely answers. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/114 "2011-07-31T21:02:58Z")
10 of 10 easy peasy if you think about them… I’m 50 and enjoy history and the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/115 "2011-07-31T22:45:07Z")
10 for 10. > [@Bibliothecarius](#): > > In fact, I’m interested to know if other people who know a lot about American history were actually more tripped up by the “easy” questions. I often tend to find those harder in answering questions that fall within my specialized fields of knowledge, simply because I know it’s just not as simple as they teach you in school. This didn’t happen to me on this test, but in those areas where I have done a lot of study, it does become more of a “What is the answer they are looking for?” kind of thing. The good news is that in this case none of the answers are going to be all that nuanced, and so all of the choices are going to be wrong in a sense. I guess that can trip me up, but not to the point where I would give the answer they don’t want. > [@robardin](#): > > I got all 10 correct but some of them were a bit tricky. These were not your everyday factoid questions, nor the usual blisteringly obvious multiple choice answers - many of the answers seemed at first glance very similar to each other unless you either knew the right answer outright, or knew for sure the true context of the other answers. I think they were all pretty obvious. In the one with the Nazi-boot poster, for example, the image didn’t even show up for me until I had answered the question. So I had no Idea the Nazis were more or less explicitly brought up, but because of the choices, Germany was the only real possibility. While the British cared about Japan and Italy, none of them had nearly the effect as the Germans did. The one about the frontier is a bit tricky, I admit, if you don’t know what closing the frontier means, and I do suppose that it is easy to think that it meant that the frontier had been closed off. I suppose others could disagree with me though. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > 10/10. I don’t think any of them really used my history knowledge but rather my critical thinking skills which ideally is a cross-discipline skillset. This is pretty much it. And this is why I hate multiple choice tests, at least as a test of knowledge because pretty much all multiple choice tests are tests of the ability to eliminate the answers that have to be wrong. I say this because I have a gift on taking multiple choice tests. I’ve managed to score 80% on them when they’re about things I don’t actually know all that much about. You don’t have to actually know anything because the answer is there. But they’re easy to score and so we’re stuck with them, at least for things like this. I know that I would not have done as well on this text if they were fill in the blank answers. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/116 "2011-07-31T22:56:19Z")
10/10 - I struggled with the last one because everything after WWII sends me right to sleep. Blind guessing saved the day. I got the factory system one, because immigrant labour didn’t make sense without factories - either you need skilled workers or you don’t. I don’t think any western country had a shortage of unskilled labour since the Black Death. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/117 "2011-07-31T23:01:33Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > I got 9 out of 10. I had a lot of difficulty believing that there was a major cross-atlantic trade of meat in the 18th century. > > Am I missing something or was that meat disgusting either through being rotten or filled with salt? I missed the same question for the same reason/. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625/118 "2011-08-01T01:00:48Z")
10/10 here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-proficient-in-american-history-test/590625.md?page=5)