What Do You Know? : The Ultimate Test Of Common (and Not So Common) Knowledge

by Jaime O'Neill

A collection of quizzes tests the ability to identify people, places and things from history, literature and popular culture

Genres: Trivia, Nonfiction, Reference, Cultural

257 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Juneko Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had forgotten what a fun book this is. It’s not simply a trivia book. This author is a community college professor who, like so many back in the ‘90s, became concerned about media reports about the inability of many Americans, including college students, to recognize the names of certain historical figures who were deemed to be an important part of our national heritage. However, the author casts a wider net than US history. The book is comprised of a number of quizzes and tests, some short, many rather long (100 questions). What is clever is the form of the quizzes themselves. Some describe a historic event and ask who the main protagonist was. But others ask whether the names of individuals, groups or places describe real or fictional entities. Others show a photograph and ask who or what it is and why it’s famous. One quiz asks whether a given place name is an island, river, mountain or lake. Another asks you to identify where place names that are always in the news are located. Identifying the original source of an oft repeated quote is another, while common initials and acronyms are another. There are many, many others covering history, current events, popular culture, politics, art, science and technology as they are typically presented in the media and throughout formal education, so much so that I think this author could’ve made a pretty penny creating a board game that would’ve rivaled Trivial Pursuit. But my personal favorite is the quiz that requires you to situate, within a ten year period, when a person, place or thing emerged or first became known. It was because of that quiz in particular that I began to have a deeper appreciation for why having a general understanding of the progression of history was important when I first read this back when I was in my 20s.