On 21-12-2010 14:47, Stephen wrote:
> On 20/12/2010 11:22 PM, andrel wrote:
>>
>>> Maybe it is just Hollanders that do not have a sense of
>>> history. ;-)
>>>
>>
>> I think it is much broader them just the main cities in the west. Ask a
>> Dutchman to cite a bit of Joost van den Vondel and you probably have to
>> explain that he is for Dutch literature what Shakespeare is for the
>> English. Ask to name the Dutch Nobel prize winner at the beginning of
>> the 20th century 'were there any?'.
>
> I'm sure that the same goes, here.
>
>> In short: I am Dutch, I can't cite any Dutch poems or other literature,
>> I don't know any influential Dutch people from before I was born outside
>> my own field, I assume that the industrial revolution started in
>> England,
>
> We think so but prefer to say it started in Britian. :-P

Actually it didn't. It started with windmills in the area that I live in ;)

>> I cannot date when William of Orange lived to within one or two
>> centuries, Napoleon wasn't that a French general? etc.
>>
>
> They both had a profound influence on British culture and history so we
> know a bit about them.

See, precisely my point. (only I meant the first one, the founder of our 
dynasty, so it might not be my point. But I do not know which William is 
the one that you probably mean, so I win in the end)

>> In my experience English people often know more from Dutch history than
>> we do.
>
> That could be that the Brits you have met took the trouble to find out
> about the country they were visiting. I did when I worked for Philips in
> Eindhoven and did the same in other countries. The only exception was
> when I was working in Zagreb, I thought it best not to know :-)
>
>> I know other countries are also in the process of loosing
>> historical knowledge in the young generation.
>
> True. :-(
>
>> Yet I think are still
>> better than the others because we have a much longer experience with it.
>> (Or have we?)
>
> Do you?

how can I know? I know nothing about what happened in the past. [go back 
to 20/12/2010 23:27 and repeat].

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