Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know

Ginger says: E. D. Hirsch’s nerdy (said with the greatest affection around here) premise is that in order to have shared community, you have to have a shared vocabulary. As the world has gotten broader, our cultural literacy is more scattered than ever because trends come and go so fast. So he proposes about 5,000 words and concepts we all need to know in order to understand allusions in literature, film, music, and conversation. Perusing the short entries in this volume—from Cleopatra to Cinderella to Cerberus—is educational.