Cultural Literacy
What Every American Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch

The Bible-Armageddon, eye of the needle, golden calf, Jacob’s ladder, Methuselah, Pontius Pilate

Mythology and Folklore-Achilles, Argonauts, Excalibur, Labyrinth, Medusa, Styx

Proverbs-Don’t close the barn door after the horse runs away.  The wish is father to the deed.

Idioms-buy a pig in a poke, carry coals to Newcastle, cross the Rubicon, cast pearls to the swine

World Literature, Philosophy, and Religion-John Calvin, Mephistopheles, natural law, Joseph Smith

Literature in English-Geoffrey Chaucer, “Civil Disobedience”, Joseph Conrad, Walter Mitty

Conventions of Written English-alliteration, indirect object, metaphor, spoonerism, superlative

Fine Arts-a cappella, Count Basie, Mary Cassatt, Monticello, Richard Rogers, John Phillip Sousa

World History to 1550- Attila the Hun, Ann Boleyn, Copernicus, Magna Carta, Marco Polo

World History since 1550-Auschwitz, Oliver Cromwell, Hirohito, Rasputin,  Battle of Waterloo

American History to 1865-Articles of Confederation, Compromise of 1850, Frederick Douglas

American History since 1865-Hank Aaron,  Clarence Darrow,  Rosa Parks, Wounded Knee

World Politics-banana republics, Geneva Conventions, kibbutz, pacifism, socialism, sanctions

American Politics-blue laws, conscientious objector, filibuster, fireside chat, pork barrel legislation

World Geography-archipelago, Baghdad, Golan Heights, Lake Victoria, Sri Lanka, Zurich

American Geography-Beacon Hill, Mason-Dixon line, Newport, Reno, Sacramento

Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology-angst, behavior modification, Freud, misogynist

Business and Economics-blue chip stock, depreciation, eminent domain, mercantilism

Physical Sciences and Mathematics-bell curve, cohesion, half life, Pythagorean theorem

Earth Sciences-continental divide, cumulus cloud, greenhouse effect, ionosphere, tectonic plates

Life Sciences-biosphere, cellulose, mollusks, Origin of the Species, stamen, xylem

Medicine and Health-atrophy, botulism, lobotomy, prognosis, rigor mortis

Technology-byte, fiber optics, ohm, semiconductor, Three Mile Island, transformer