Richard Lederer - American Trivia: What We Should All Know About U.S. History, Culture & Geography

American Trivia

What We All Should Know About U.S. History, Culture & Geography

Richard Lederer

Caroline McCullagh

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2012 Richard Lederer and Caroline McCullagh

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993

www.gibbs-smith.com

ISBN: 978-1-4236-2278-9

Adventures of a Verbivore

Anguished English

The Ants Are My Friends (with Stan Kegel)

Basic Verbal Skills (with Philip Burnham)

The Bride of Anguished English

Building Bridge (with Bo Schambelan and Arnold Fisher)

The Circus of Words

Classic Literary Trivia

Cleverly Comical Animal Jokes (with Jim Ertner)

Comma Sense (with John Shore)

Crazy English

The Cunning Linguist

Fractured English

Get Thee to a Punnery

The Giant Book of Animal Jokes (with Jim Ertner)

The Gift of Age

Have Yourself a Punny Little Christmas

Literary Trivia

A Man of My Words

The Miracle of Language

More Anguished English

The Play of Words

Presidential Trivia

Pun & Games

Puns Spooken Here

The Revenge of Anguished English

Rip Roaring Animal Jokes (with Jim Ertner)

Sleeping Dogs Dont Lay (with Richard Dowis)

Super Funny Animal Jokes (with Jim Ertner)

A Treasury for Cat Lovers

A Treasury for Dog Lovers

A Tribute to Teachers

Wild & Wacky Animal Jokes (with Jim Ertner)

The Word Circus

Word Play Crosswords, Vols. 1 and 2 (with Gayle Dean)

Word Wizard

The Write Way (with Richard Dowis)

Thanks to David Feldman, Audrea Liszt, Syd Love, and our editor, Bob Cooper, for their help in making American Trivia a better book.

Who is this American, this new man? J. Hector St. John de Crvecoeur

America is not merely a nation but a nation of nations. Lyndon Johnson

America is so vast that almost everything said about it is likely true, and the opposite is probably equally true. James T. Farrell

The United States of America, a federal constitutional republic covering 3.79 million square miles, is home to a population of almost 315 million people. Our nation is composed of fifty states; one federal district: Washington, D.C.; three territories: American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; and two commonwealths: Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

What are the ties that bind together a country as far-reaching and diverse as ours? Throughout our history, weve lived through the best of times, and weve also lived through the worst of times; yet the heart of our society continues to beat mightily.

We are not a people made from a single stock. Rather, we are a medley of colors, races, religions, and ethnicities. As Jesse Jackson explains, Our flag is red, white, and blue, but our nation is a rainbowred, yellow, brown, black, and white.

You might think our language unites us, but in fact we have no official language; we speak all the languages of the world. Walking down the street in any American city, you may hear Spanish or Chinese or Yiddish or any of the more than three hundred other tongues spoken in the United States. Many people are in the process of transition from the language of their birth to English, while others strive to preserve the language of their heritage.

Is there such a thing as an American palate? We all know what hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries are, but do you know what a cat biscuit or a johnnycake is? Have you eaten poi? Gyros? Moose hash? Mountain oysters? Gefilte fish? Some of us would say yes, most of us, no.

How about the arts? Do you like music?Classical? Country? Blues? Rap? Rock? Jazz? Hip-hop? Folk? Theres something for everyone. Do you enjoy movies?Westerns? Romances? Action films? Foreign films? Art films? Documentaries? Animation? The choices seem endless. The same can be said for our literature, our fine arts, our theater, and our dance.

We all share a nation with many people who may look different from us, speak a native language different from ours, and pray in a way that may be foreign to us. In any category you mention, there are a myriad of possibilities. What, then, holds us together in this vast and varied land of ours?

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. John Winthrop, sermon written during the voyage to Massachusetts (1630)

The one thing all Americans have in common is our history. It doesnt matter if youre a first-generation or twelfth-generation American. You own our history. Thats what makes you an American. Thats the glue that holds us together as a people.

Most of us learn some of that history in school. Then, like so many other facts that we acquired there, the chronicle of our national adventure fades into the background of our lives. Will and Ariel Durant said it best: We Americans are the best informed people on earth as to the events of the last twenty-four hours. We are not the best informed as to the events of the past sixty centuries.

We hope that this book will make the history of America live for youthat youll think more about the people who have gone before us and worked so hard to bequeath us a united, spirited, and enchanting country. We hope that youll find even more precious our national gifts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Richard Lederer and Caroline McCullagh San Diego, California

Part 1

Origins

Chapter 1

How America Got Its Name

Christopher Columbus (14511506) is generally given credit for finding America. In grade school most of us learned this ditty:

In fourteen hundred ninety-two,

Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

And he did. On his first voyage, he sighted the Bahamas and made land on Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). On three subsequent voyages, he also explored the coast of South America. But Columbus never realized that he had sailed to the New World. He died in 1506, blissfully certain that he had reached Asia.

An Italian, Amerigo Vespucci (14541512), working in Spain for the Medici family, helped outfit the ships for Columbuss first voyage. He in turn made three voyages to the New World, but never to North America. When he returned to Spain, he wrote about the wonders he had seen.