Confederacy of Dunces

Believe it or not, a new opinion poll found that a significant number of Americans do not know the answer to this question:  “From which country did the United States win its independence?”

Boston.com reported that 26 percent of respondents did not know that the U.S. won its independence from Great Britain, according to a Marist Poll. Six percent believed that the country could have been France, China, Japan, Mexico or Spain.

Thirty-two percent of Southerners weren’t sure or picked the wrong country compared to 16% of respondents in the Northeast.

Meanwhile, another poll conducted by the U.S. Mint discovered that “only 7 percent of those surveyed could name the first four presidents in order:  George Washington; John Adams; Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.”

Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.