This is a quiz about American politics, and it’s fairly hard. Google not and see if you can get half of these right, all of which I derived from Raymond Seitz’s charming book Over Here. As ever, post scores and comments/critiques at the end.
1. Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden” was about the relationship between the United States and what other country?
2. If Hillary Clinton is elected President, she will be the first POTUS with prior experience as Secretary of State since who?
3. Before he became Secretary of State, James Baker was asked whether he had ever visited a communist country. He replied “No, but I’ve been to”….where?
4. William Gladstone said it was “The most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man”. To what was he referring?
5. U.K. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was a distant relative of which U.S. President?
6. The first communication by Transatlantic Cable occurred between Queen Victoria and which U.S. President?
ANSWERS
1. The Phillipines
2. James Buchanan
3. Massachusetts
4. The U.S. Constitution (Seitz notes “Gladstone clearly never had to get a bill through Congress”)
5. John F. Kennedy
6. James Buchanan
doncoffin64 says
Hard to believe that Buchanan could be the answer to 2 trivia questions, but there you go.
marcel_proust says
Nah. They don't come much more trivial than Buchanan (maybe Pierce or Arthur, but …).
Keith_Humphreys says
Who is the only president who was a lifelong bachelor? makes three.
TheHersch says
Which president was possibly even worse than George W. Bush? Makes four!
johnarkansawyer says
It's interesting to me that of the two I got right (1 & 3), I didn't know either answer as a fact but was able to derive it from general knowledge.
(And I thought I knew a little more than average about Kipling's verse, too-how embarrassing not to know that one!)