Was the author condescending, or are we just idiots?

[yendi]

So, I'm reading this novel. And at one point, the main character, an American with a solid education and a background in both medicine and tech reporting (think of a mind meld between kizlj and docorion), makes it abundantly clear that she's never heard of the English Civil War or Oliver Cromwell (she had to look him up in Encarta to verify that he even existed).

The author is British, so I'm trying to figure out if he honestly thinks that Americans are that fucking ignorant, or if (as all those articles about how Johnny Can't Find Texas on a Map argue), we live in a nation of morons, where even the college-educated know nothing (as Bill Maher notes, George Bush did go to Yale).

So, in light of that, for those of you who are American, do you have an idea of who Cromwell was and what the English Civil War entailed? If so, does it strike you as something that a college-educated person should be familiar with?

I'm curious if folks in other countries that were British colonies at the time also know about it. I'm not sure how many of you (if any) are in countries that aren't current or former British colonies, but I'm curious about that, as well.

And I'm taking it as a given that folks who are actually in Great Britain do know about Cromwell. :-)

ETA: Like I said, she'd never heard of him. Period. The name "Oliver Cromwell" rang a bell with her in roughly the same way that "Pbsurha't N'adsdsadlo" would. We're not just talking about being unable to write an essay here.

Comments

[yendi]

See, that's what surprises me, as I've always taken Cromwell and the English Civil War to have at least somewhat dovetailed with ours (if nothing else, in how it affected the relationship with the colonies during that time). Then again, I also don't know how much time was spent on any pre-1700 American history in any of the courses I taught (trying to figure out what I learned when is tough).