In honor of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, ACTA releases a GfK survey on historical amnesia about World War II. The study found that a quarter of American adults don’t know that D-Day occurred during World War II. It also found that more than half of American adults—including 43% of college students—don’t know Franklin D. Roosevelt was president at the time of the invasion. The survey was the subject of a column by nationally-syndicated writer Cal Thomas.
ACTA teams up with GfK on a new survey on American historical literacy just in time for the premiere of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary, “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.” The study found that over half of American adults don’t know Franklin D. Roosevelt spearheaded the New Deal, and 59% don’t know Theodore Roosevelt had a […]
In time for the 150th anniversary of the tragic night when John Wilkes Booth slipped into Ford’s Theater and shot President Abraham Lincoln, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni released a survey that reveals another tragedy: Lincoln—and much of his legacy—is being lost to the ages. According to the survey, only half of the American […]
ACTA teams up with Gfk Roper OmniTel to conduct a new survey on American historical literacy. Again, the results are troubling. Less than half of the college graduates surveyed could identify George Washington as the general at Yorktown. Only 20% could identify the “Father of the Constitution.” Less than half of college graduates surveyed could identify the […]
Given the numerous studies revealing how American education lags behind instruction in other countries in disciplines once thought to be essential, it should come as no surprise that on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, a lot of people are clueless about central elements of the Allied invasion of the European continent on June 6, 1944. […]
A recent article in “The Federalist” underscored a disturbing educational trend: Students are increasingly ignorant about U.S. history. The sobering statistics disclosed include: • 24 percent of Americans older than 18 visited a historic site in 2012 – a 13 percent drop from 1982. • Only 20.5 percent of Americans between ages 18 and 24 visited […]
When Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination before an exuberant crowd of 80,000 at Invesco Field last week, pundits were amazed: Look at all of these young people, gathered to watch a political event, of all things. Certainly, this year’s election–necessitating, as it has, an understanding of terms as obscure as “superdelegate”–has been a […]
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