Of course the writer should have done more research, or got an American in to check... but the problem with the Bicentennial is that you can't research it if you have no idea it existed.
Actually, I remember quite a lot of coverage of the Bicentennial in the UK media in 1976, and I did learn a little about the War of Independence and even (shock!horror) the War of 1812 and the American Civil War in school, but that was long, long ago (the 1960s) and when UK schools concentrated much more on political and military history. The writer may not have even been born in 1976 - and probably wouldn't have remembered the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977 either! (It certainly didn't occur to the aforementioned Connie Willis when she mentioned the Jubilee Line in Blackout.)
I suppose that some people (even in the UK) also believe that everyone in London speaks cod-Cockney and that all Australians talk like Crocodile Dundee....
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Date: 2011-03-01 08:52 am (UTC)Actually, I remember quite a lot of coverage of the Bicentennial in the UK media in 1976, and I did learn a little about the War of Independence and even (shock!horror) the War of 1812 and the American Civil War in school, but that was long, long ago (the 1960s) and when UK schools concentrated much more on political and military history. The writer may not have even been born in 1976 - and probably wouldn't have remembered the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977 either! (It certainly didn't occur to the aforementioned Connie Willis when she mentioned the Jubilee Line in Blackout.)
I suppose that some people (even in the UK) also believe that everyone in London speaks cod-Cockney and that all Australians talk like Crocodile Dundee....