Well, I know that here in the States, the woeful lack of knowledge about history is at least partly to do with the fact that in the schools everyone is concerned that the students learn higher math, but nobody really thinks that history is important. It's just a bunch of dead guys, after all, is their reasoning.
Frustrates me. I love history. I can see the connections between the past and the present, and my personal perspective is that knowing what happened in the past puts what is happening now into context. Case in point: There's a huge controversy right now about a nasty campaign ad against John Kerry by a group of men who claim to have served with him in Vietnam (although part of the controversy has to do with whether at least some of them really served with him or just served in Vietnam at the same time he was there). There are all kinds of allegations made that he has lied about his military record and I don't know what all. If people had an historical perspective that this sort of character assassination ads in campaigns goes back at least to the election of 1884, between Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine, they might look at such ads a little more critically. Or maybe not. But there is at least a chance that knowledge of this would make people aware that not everything they see and hear in political ads is strictly true.
