The New Dictionary Of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know Hardcover – Illustrated, October 3, 2002

My eighth-grade son told me he had an assignment that he couldn't finish until he got to school the next morning because he had to look something up in the Cultural Literacy dictionary. I thought he was trying to pull one over on me, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and told him he could only use this excuse once.A few days later he told me he used a special favor with his school librarian and was able to bring this book home. Huh? You mean he wasn't kidding me before? So I flipped through the pages to see what this was. I was shocked that he had assignments where he actually had to look something up in a paper book instead of Googling it. OK son, you have my attention.So he walked me through it and explained to me why he needed this reference book for his assignments. He showed me a few examples of references he had used for projects where the references used cultural terms he was unfamiliar with, like D-Day and the League of Women Voters. He explained that the reference book he was using was just a little mature for him, but that he could look up some of these unfamiliar issues, define them, and cite their definitions in his paper and then continue on with his research.Wow. I would have expected kids his age to just bluff their way through the assignment.So no more calling in favors with the librarian. I bought him his own copy for home. I can't believe any of my kids are using actual physical desktop references anymore, but I really love it. Although the definitions are a little simplistic in some cases, they give him enough of a frame of reference to be able to continue on with work without having to look up every single new item online.This book is great for young students. I imagine it would be useful for foreign students too. I guess it would be great for space aliens and time travelers too. It's really a great way for anyone who is unfamiliar with today's common cultural references to quickly define the term and "get it" like the rest of us.I realize this physical book will become dated before too long, but at least it covers common references from now through the past.

This book, to put it plainly, is awesome. It is crammed full of knowledge that will truly put you on the road to cultural literacy. This book does not go into detail on any given subject. Instead it gives you the general meaning on a variety of subjects. It describes itself as a dictionary and that is how it is formatted. I do not understand why people complain that this book does not go in-depth on all of the subjects. That describes an encyclopedia and encyclopedias are available for sale too.The definitions are presented according to subjects. The subject headers in this book are:The Bible, Mythology and Folklore, Proverbs, Idioms, World Literature, Philosophy, and Religion, Literature in English, Conventions of Written English, Fine Arts, World History to 1550, World History Since 1550, American History to 1865, American History Since 1865, World Politics, American Politics, World Politics, American Politics, World Geography, American Geography, Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology, Business and Economics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health, Technology.Home schoolers I highly recommend this to you. It will serve as a great general reference for a well designed curriculum. Public Schoolers I recommend you buy this as well. It will serve as supplement for the complete lack of curriculum and education that the government is providing you, that is if you have even been taught to read.

Want to look up cultural references in Denis Miller's rants? Can't remember what the Byzantine empire did? Feel like your loosing your memory? This book can help!Yes, I'll admit the title does have a certain haughtiness and presumptiouness to it, but this book is packed with information. The topics covered are quite broad, and I guess it would HAVE to be if the goal is to ensure cultural literacy. Including all the things you should have learned in highschool had you been paying attention, this book is a great refresher course in everything from History, to Literature, to proverbs and idioms in the English language.It has a bit of a western bias, which is sort of what I'm getting at when I say the title presumes alot. Perhaps an alternate title (and I mean this without cynicsm) would be "what most Americans don't know about America but should." I include myself in that category, by the way.The best thing about this book is it's organization. At first, I was wishing it was all alphabetical, but then you realize that grouping entries in catagorized chapters is better. Additionally, the bites of data are concise and easily digested, enough to answer a question and provide enough information for you to look elsewhere if you want in depth explainations.